I'm on Papers: Analyzing the Intersection of Criminal Justice Supervision and Synthetic Cannabinoid Use among Young Black Men Admitted to an Urban Emergency Department for Violent Injury

Approximately 6.7 million Americans are under some form of criminal justice supervision (i.e., prison, jail, probation or parole). A disproportionate number of this population (38 percent) is low-income, young Black men.  An estimated 11,406 U.S. emergency department (ED) visits in 2010 involved a synthetic cannabinoid product and three fourths of these visits were made by patients ages 12 to 29. Synthetic cannabinoids, also referred to as synthetic marijuana, (i.e., Spice, or K2), are substances designed to produce physical effects similar to marijuana and PCP. In the majority (59%) of ED visits made by patients ages 12 to 29 that involved synthetic cannabinoids, no other substances were involved. From 1993-2010, males, blacks and persons ages 18-24 had the highest rates of firearm-related injury. Furthermore, a recent study on 191 young Black men admitted to an urban trauma unit for violent injury found that 88 percent of this population was under some form of criminal justice supervision at the time of their injury. The qualitative data used for this paper was collected from a longitudinal ethnographic research study of risk factors for recurrent violent injury among twenty young Black men (ages 18-34) admitted to an urban ED for violent penetrative injury. The data suggest that young Black men under criminal justice supervision admitted to the ED for violent injury regularly smoke synthetic cannabinoids to avoid ‘dirty urine’ in their drug urinalysis. Yet little is known about how criminal justice policies influence synthetic marijuana use and misuse among this vulnerable population.