Substance abuse

bully

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Middle- and high-school students who bully their classmates are more likely than others to use substances such as cigarettes, alcohol and marijuana, a new study found.

Researchers found that bullies and bully-victims – youth who are both perpetrators and victims – were more likely to use substances than were victims and non-involved youth.

“Our findings suggest that one deviant behavior may be related to another,” said Kisha Radliff, lead author of the study and assistant professor of school psychology at Ohio State University.

“For example, youth who bully others might be more likely to also try substance use. The reverse could also be true in that youth who use substances might be more likely to bully others.”
The researchers didn’t find as strong a link between victims of bullying and substance use. [continue reading…]

IQ link to drug use

cocaineGirls with high childhood IQs are more likely to take illegal drugs in their 30s, research has uncovered.

Dr James White from the Centre for the Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement (DECIPHer) examined data from just under 8000 people in the 1970 British Cohort Study, a large ongoing population based study, which looks at lifetime drug use, socioeconomic factors, and educational attainment.

The IQ scores of the participants were measured at the ages of 5 and 10 years, using validated scales, and information was gathered on self reported levels of psychological distress and drug use at the age of 16, and again at the age of 30.

Drugs assessed at 16 included cannabis and cocaine; and at 30 years of age included cannabis; cocaine; amphetamines; and ecstasy.

By the age of 30, around one in three men (35.4%) and one in six women (15.9%) had used cannabis, while 8.6% of men and 3.6% of women had used cocaine, in the previous 12 months. A similar pattern of use was found for the other drugs, with overall drug use twice as common among men as among women. [continue reading…]


Scientists suspect that people who smoke potent skunk are more at risk of psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia than those who use other types of cannabis.

According to new research, regular users double their risk of psychosis but heavy skunk users increase theirs seven-fold.UK experts have a theory it is down to skunk’s composition – it contains more of the chemical that gets users stoned.

The work is published in British Journal of Psychiatry. link to continue reading

Source: BBC

The Straight Dope

Studies Suggest Parental Monitoring Can Help Decrease Adolescent Marijuana Use

Photo Credit: iStockphoto

Photo Credit: iStockphoto

Marijuana is the most widely used illicit drug by adolescents, with almost 42% of high school seniors admitting to having experimented with it. Continued marijuana use may result in a number of serious consequences including depression, cognitive impairment, cardiovascular disease, and certain forms of cancer. As such, it is critical to prevent marijuana use by adolescents and numerous behavioral and medical scientists have been trying to establish the best means of prevention. [continue reading…]