Youth marijuana use and related behaviors: Do community and state policy environments matter?


Back to Annual Meeting Page		American Public Health Association 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition December 10-14, 2005 Philadelphia, PA

4002.0: Tuesday, December 13, 2005 - 9:06 AM

Abstract #116312

Yvonne Terry-McElrath, MSA¹, Duane C. McBride, PhD², Jamie F. Chriqui, PhD, MHS³, Curt VanderWaal, PhD⁴, Patrick O'Malley, PhD¹, Lloyd Johnston, PhD¹, and Frank J. Chaloupka, PhD⁵. (1) Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan, Survey Research Center, Room 2341, 426 Thompson Street, Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2321, (2) Institute for the Prevention of Addictions, Andrews University, Highway 31, Berrien Springs, MI 49104, 269.471.3576, mcbride@andrews.edu, (3) Center for Health Policy and Legislative Analysis, The MayaTech Corporation, 1100 Wayne Avenue, Suite 900, Silver Spring, MD 20910-3921, (4) The Institute for the Prevention of Addictions, Andrews University, 123 Nethery Hall, Berrien Springs, MI 49104, (5) Health Policy Center, University of Illinois at Chicago, 1747 W Roosevelt Road (M/C 275, Room 558), Chicago, IL 60608

Societal attempts to address drug use include state laws prohibiting possession and sales, policies regarding diversion to treatment and (for juveniles) transfer to adult court, as well as local law enforcement and prosecutorial decisions about the application of local policy and practice. However, few analyses have been able to incorporate both macro- and micro-level policies and practices when examining relationships with individual-level youth drug use data. This presentation utilizes data collected in 2000 from three sources to investigate policy environment relationships with youth marijuana use and related beliefs: (a) state-level diversion provisions as well as fine and jail penalties for marijuana sales and possession; (b) local prosecutor-reported typical adjudication outcomes for first-time juvenile offenders charged with marijuana possession and sales (including use of diversion to treatment, juvenile justice system adjudication severity, and transfer to criminal court); and (c) individual-level self-reported marijuana use and related attitudes/beliefs obtained from a nationally-representative sample of 8th, 10th, and 12th-grade students. While controlling for a variety of community and individual socio-demographic characteristics, analyses focus on relationships between: (1) state law and local prosecutor-reported juvenile adjudication outcomes, (2) local prosecutor-reported juvenile outcomes and individual student-level marijuana use/attitudes/beliefs, and (3) larger state-level policy environment variables and individual youth marijuana-related behaviors and beliefs. It is important to examine such relationships in order to investigate if youth disapproval of, believed harm associated with, and/or use prevalence rates of marijuana appear to vary between policy environments by levels of deterrence and public health treatment emphasis.

Learning Objectives:

At the conclusion of the session, the participant in this session will be able to

1. Discuss the range of state and local policy environments surrounding marijuana possession and sales.
2. Recognize the possible relationships between policy implementation at the state and local levels and youth substance use and related attitudes/beliefs.
3. Describe possible implications of policy-behavior relationships, including service access and issues of cost to the community.

Keywords: Marijuana, Policy/Policy Development

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

I wish to disclose that I have NO financial interests or other relationship with the manufactures of commercial products, suppliers of commercial services or commercial supporters.

Recently Found Consequences of Substance Abuse

The 133rd Annual Meeting & Exposition (December 10-14, 2005) of APHA