The hard stuff
The Effects of Merit-Based Financial Aid on Drinking in College
Benjamin Cowan & Dustin White
Journal of Health Economics, December 2015, Pages 137-149
Abstract:
We study the effect of state-level merit aid programs (such as Georgia's HOPE scholarship) on alcohol consumption among college students. Such programs have the potential to affect drinking through a combination of channels - such as raising students' disposable income and increasing the incentive to maintain a high GPA - that could theoretically raise or lower alcohol use. We find that the presence of a merit aid program in one's state generally leads to an overall increase in (heavy) drinking. This effect is concentrated among men, students with lower parental education, older students, and students with high college GPA's. Our findings are robust to several alternative empirical specifications including event-study analyses by year of program adoption. Furthermore, no difference in high-school drinking is observed for students attending college in states with merit-aid programs.
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Do Medical Marijuana Laws Increase Hard-Drug Use?
Yu-Wei Luke Chu
Journal of Law & Economics, May 2015, Pages 481-517
Abstract:
Medical marijuana laws generate significant debate regarding drug policy. For instance, if marijuana is a complement to hard drugs, then these laws would increase the usage not only of marijuana but also of hard drugs. In this paper I study empirically the effects of medical marijuana laws by analyzing data on drug arrests and treatment admissions. I find that medical marijuana laws increase these proxies for marijuana consumption by around 10-15 percent. However, there is no evidence that cocaine and heroin usage increases. From the arrest data, the estimates indicate a 0-15 percent decrease in possession arrests for cocaine and heroin combined. From the treatment data, the estimates show a 20 percent decrease in admissions for heroin-related treatment, although there is no significant effect for cocaine-related treatment. These results suggest that marijuana may be a substitute for heroin, but it is not strongly correlated with cocaine.
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Ash Levitt & Lynne Cooper
Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, September 2015, Pages 661-670
Objective: The present study examined familial risk and protective factors as moderators of parents allowing their adolescent children to drink at home on longitudinal alcohol involvement trajectories.
Method: A total of 772 community adolescents and their parents provided data beginning in 1989 and at four subsequent time points over 15 years; Black adolescents were intentionally oversampled (50% at baseline).
Results: Outcomes related to allowing adolescents to drink at home depended on family structure: Adolescents from intact families who were allowed to drink at home showed the lowest levels of alcohol use and problems over time, whereas those from nonintact families who were allowed to drink at home showed the highest levels of involvement. These results controlled for family history of alcohol problems, consistent parenting styles, and demographic characteristics.
Conclusions: Results suggest that allowing adolescents to drink at home is neither inherently protective nor risky but depends on the family context. Implications for the development of adolescent alcohol involvement are discussed.
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How does Electronic Cigarette Access affect Adolescent Smoking?
Abigail Friedman
Journal of Health Economics, forthcoming
Abstract:
Understanding electronic cigarettes' effect on tobacco smoking is a central economic and policy issue. This paper examines the causal impact of e-cigarette access on conventional cigarette use by adolescents. Regression analyses consider how state bans on e-cigarette sales to minors influence smoking rates among 12 to 17 year olds. Such bans yield a statistically significant 0.9 percentage point increase in recent smoking in this age group, relative to states without such bans. Results are robust to multiple specifications as well as several falsification and placebo checks. This effect is both consistent with e-cigarette access reducing smoking among minors, and large: banning electronic cigarette sales to minors counteracts 70 percent of the downward pre-trend in teen cigarette smoking in the states that implemented such bans.
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Alcohol consumption increases bias to shoot at Middle Eastern but not White targets
Timothy Schofield, Christian Unkelbach & Thomas Denson
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, forthcoming
Abstract:
Alcohol has been implicated in intergroup aggression and hostility. The effect of consuming alcohol relative to a placebo on hostile cognitive biases toward a social category typically stereotyped as threatening and hostile (i.e., Middle Eastern men) was tested. Undergraduates (N = 81) consumed either an intoxicating dose of alcohol (BrAC = .05% by vol.) or placebo. Then, they played a shooter game in which they were asked to shoot at targets holding guns, but not at targets holding harmless objects. Half of the targets were White and half were Middle Eastern. As predicted, alcohol consumption, relative to a placebo, increased participants' bias to shoot Middle Eastern targets, but did not affect the shooter bias against White targets. Findings suggest that alcohol may heighten aggressive biases toward outgroups stereotyped as threatening and hostile.
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Exploring the Link between Being Bullied and Adolescent Substance Use
Nadine Connell, Robert Morris & Alex Piquero
Victims & Offenders, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although research suggests that bullied adolescents may respond to victimization with substance use, much of this prior work has been cross-sectional. Using longitudinal data from a community-based sample, we examine the impact of early bullying victimization on the initiation of substance use in adolescence after considering the potential influence of selection effects using propensity score matching. After matching, there were moderate differences between victims of bullying and control students for cigarette smoking and alcohol use, which was limited to those exposed to higher levels of bullying. Being bullied in childhood appears to have only minor effects on the onset of adolescent substance use in this sample.
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Elizabeth Handley, Fred Rogosch & Dante Cicchetti
Development and Psychopathology, November 2015, Pages 1489-1502
Abstract:
The current study examined the prospective association between child maltreatment and the development of substance use disorder in adolescence with the aim of investigating pathways underlying this relation, as well as genetic moderation of these developmental mechanisms. Specifically, we tested whether youth who experienced maltreatment prior to age 8 were at risk for the development of marijuana dependence in adolescence by way of a childhood externalizing pathway and a childhood internalizing pathway. Moreover, we tested whether variation in FK506 binding protein 5 gene (FKBP5) CATT haplotype moderated these pathways. The participants were 326 children (n =179 maltreated; n = 147 nonmaltreated) assessed across two waves of data collection (childhood: ages 7-9 and adolescence: ages 15-18). Results indicated that higher levels of child externalizing symptoms significantly mediated the effect of child maltreatment on adolescent marijuana dependence symptoms for individuals with one or two copies of the FKBP5 CATT haplotype only. We did not find support for an internalizing pathway from child maltreatment to adolescent marijuana dependence, nor did we find evidence of moderation of the internalizing pathway by FKBP5 haplotype variation. Findings extend previous research by demonstrating that whether a maltreated child will traverse an externalizing pathway toward substance use disorder in adolescence is dependent on FKBP5 genetic variation.
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Randomized Trial of Reduced-Nicotine Standards for Cigarettes
Eric Donny et al.
New England Journal of Medicine, 1 October 2015, Pages 1340-1349
Background: The Food and Drug Administration can set standards that reduce the nicotine content of cigarettes.
Methods: We conducted a double-blind, parallel, randomized clinical trial between June 2013 and July 2014 at 10 sites. Eligibility criteria included an age of 18 years or older, smoking of five or more cigarettes per day, and no current interest in quitting smoking. Participants were randomly assigned to smoke for 6 weeks either their usual brand of cigarettes or one of six types of investigational cigarettes, provided free. The investigational cigarettes had nicotine content ranging from 15.8 mg per gram of tobacco (typical of commercial brands) to 0.4 mg per gram. The primary outcome was the number of cigarettes smoked per day during week 6.
Results: A total of 840 participants underwent randomization, and 780 completed the 6-week study. During week 6, the average number of cigarettes smoked per day was lower for participants randomly assigned to cigarettes containing 2.4, 1.3, or 0.4 mg of nicotine per gram of tobacco (16.5, 16.3, and 14.9 cigarettes, respectively) than for participants randomly assigned to their usual brand or to cigarettes containing 15.8 mg per gram (22.2 and 21.3 cigarettes, respectively; P<0.001). Participants assigned to cigarettes with 5.2 mg per gram smoked an average of 20.8 cigarettes per day, which did not differ significantly from the average number among those who smoked control cigarettes. Cigarettes with lower nicotine content, as compared with control cigarettes, reduced exposure to and dependence on nicotine, as well as craving during abstinence from smoking, without significantly increasing the expired carbon monoxide level or total puff volume, suggesting minimal compensation. Adverse events were generally mild and similar among groups.
Conclusions: In this 6-week study, reduced-nicotine cigarettes versus standard-nicotine cigarettes reduced nicotine exposure and dependence and the number of cigarettes smoked.
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Did the 18 Drinking Age Promote High School Dropout? Implications for Current Policy
Andrew Plunk et al.
Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, September 2015, Pages 680-689
Objective: Disagreement exists over whether permissive minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) laws affected underage adolescents (e.g., those age 17 years with the MLDA of 18). We used MLDA changes during the 1970s and 1980s as a natural experiment to investigate how underage exposure to permissive MLDA affected high school dropout.
Method: MLDA exposure was added to two data sets: (a) the 5% public use microdata samples of the 1990 and 2000 censuses (n = 3,671,075), and (b) a combined data set based on the 1991-1992 National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiological Survey (NLAES) and the 2001-2002 National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC; n = 16,331). We used logistic regression to model different thresholds of MLDA on high school dropout. We also estimated models conditioned on demographic variables and familial risk of developing alcohol problems.
Results: Only the MLDA of 18 predicted high school dropout. Exposure was associated with 4% and 13% higher odds of high school dropout for the census and NLAES/NESARC samples, respectively. We noted greater impact on women (5%-18%), Blacks (5%-19%), and Hispanics (6%). Self-report of parental alcohol problems was associated with 40% higher odds, which equals a 4.14-point increase in dropout rate for that population.
Conclusions: The MLDA of 18 likely had a large impact on high school dropout rates, suggesting that the presence of legal-aged peers in a high school setting increased access to alcohol for younger students. Our results also suggest that policy can promote less dangerous drinking behavior even when familial risk of alcohol use disorders is high.
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Effects of artificial sweeteners on breath alcohol concentrations in male and female social drinkers
Amy Stamates, Sarah Maloney & Cecile Marczinski
Drug and Alcohol Dependence, forthcoming
Background: Alcohol is often mixed with various nonalcoholic beverages. While consumption of food with alcohol will decrease peak breath alcohol concentrations (BrAC), recent evidence has suggested that mixing alcohol with diet beverages can result in higher BrAC when compared with mixing the same amount of alcohol with sweetened beverages. The purpose of this study was to examine this phenomenon using two different moderate alcohol doses.
Methods: Twenty participants (10 males) attended five sessions where they received 1 of 5 doses (0.91 ml/kg vodka + 3.64 ml/kg of diet soda, 0.91 ml/kg vodka + 3.64 of regular soda, 1.82 ml/kg vodka + 7.28 ml/kg diet soda, 1.82 ml/kg vodka + 7.28 ml/kg regular soda, and a placebo beverage). BrAC was recorded repeatedly up to 180 min after dose administration.
Results: Participants had significantly higher BrAC when the mixer was diet as compared to regular for both alcohol dose conditions. No gender differences were observed.
Conclusions: Mixing alcohol with diet beverages can result in higher BrAC when compared to the same amount of alcohol administered with a similar sweetened beverage. Individuals who consume diet mixers with alcohol may reduce caloric intake but increase the harms associated with higher BrACs.
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Public Health Effects of Medical Marijuana Legalization in Colorado
Jonathan Davis et al.
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, forthcoming
Introduction: The public health consequences of the legalization of marijuana, whether for medical or recreational purposes, are little understood. Despite this, numerous states are considering medical or recreational legalization. In the context of abrupt changes in marijuana policy in 2009 in Colorado, the authors sought to investigate corresponding changes in marijuana-related public health indicators.
Methods: This observational, ecologic study used an interrupted time-series analysis to identify changes in public health indicators potentially related to broad policy changes that occurred in 2009. This was records-based research from the state of Colorado and Denver metropolitan area. Data were collected to examine frequency and trends of marijuana-related outcomes in hospital discharges and poison center calls between time periods before and after 2009 and adjusted for population. Analyses were conducted in 2014.
Results: Hospital discharges coded as marijuana-dependent increased 1% per month (95% CI=0.8, 1.1, p<0.001) from 2007 to 2013. A change in trend was detected in poison center calls mentioning marijuana (p<0.01). After 2009, poison center calls increased 0.8% per month (95% CI=0.2, 1.4, p<0.01). Poison center calls also increased 56% (95% CI=49%, 63%, p<0.001) in the period following the policy change. Further, there was one hospital discharge coded as dependent for every 3,159 (95% CI=2465, 3853, p<0.001) medical marijuana registrant applications.
Conclusions: The abrupt nature of these changes suggests public health effects related to broad policy changes associated with marijuana. This report may be used to assist in policy decisions regarding the short-term public health effects of marijuana legalization.
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Does cigarette smoking relieve stress? Evidence from the event-related potential (ERP)
Damee Choi, Shotaro Ota & Shigeki Watanuki
International Journal of Psychophysiology, forthcoming
Abstract:
Previous studies have reported a paradox that cigarette smoking reduces stress psychologically; however, it increases the arousal level physiologically. To examine this issue, our study aimed to investigate whether cigarette smoking relieves stress by measuring the late positive potential (LPP), a component of the event-related potential (ERP). In Experiment 1, participants first watched emotionally neutral images; second, they received a break; and finally, they watched emotionally neutral images again. In the break, they smoked a cigarette (smoking condition) or simply rested without smoking (non-smoking condition). The procedure of Experiment 2 was the same as that of Experiment 1, except that the participants watched unpleasant images as stress stimuli before the break. In Experiment 1, the LPP decreased from before to after the break in the smoking condition, but not in the non-smoking condition, suggesting that smoking cigarettes in the neutral state reduces the arousal level. In Experiment 2, the LPP for 400-600 ms decreased from before to after the break, both in the smoking and non-smoking conditions; however, the LPP for 200-400 ms decreased from before to after the break only in the smoking condition. This suggests the possibility that cigarette smoking in the unpleasant state may facilitate a decrease in the arousal level faster than with non-smoking. In both Experiments 1 and 2, the subjective rating results also suggested that cigarette smoking decreased anxiety. Taken together, both the physiological (LPP) and the psychological responses from our study suggest that cigarette smoking perhaps relieves stress.
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Steven Martino et al.
Journal of Adolescent Health, forthcoming
Purpose: To evaluate the momentary association between exposure to alcohol advertising and middle-school students' beliefs about alcohol in real-world settings and to explore racial/ethnic differences in this association.
Methods: Middle-school students (N = 588) carried handheld data collection devices for 14 days, recording their exposures to all forms of alcohol advertising during the assessment period. Students also responded to three investigator-initiated control prompts (programmed to occur randomly) on each day of the assessment period. After each exposure to advertising and at each control prompt, students reported their beliefs about alcohol. Mixed-effects regression models compared students' beliefs about alcohol between moments of exposure to alcohol advertising and control prompts.
Results: Students perceived the typical person their age who drinks alcohol (prototype perceptions) more favorably and perceived alcohol use as more normative at times of exposure to alcohol advertising than at times of nonexposure (i.e., at control prompts). Exposure to alcohol advertising was not associated with shifts in the perceived norms of black and Hispanic students, however, and the association between exposure and prototype perceptions was stronger among non-Hispanic students than among Hispanic students.
Conclusions: Exposure to alcohol advertising is associated with acute shifts in adolescents' perceptions of the typical person that drinks alcohol and the normativeness of drinking. These associations are both statistically and substantively meaningful.