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This article analyzes the riskiness attached to illicit drug use by means of a social representations framework. The implications of these social representations are further studied through their associations with views on drug policy: restrictive control and harm reduction measures. The data for the study is from a Finnish Drug Survey (N = 3229). Latent class analysis (LCA) and multinomial logistic regression analysis were used to analyze the data. Four representational profiles of perceived risk were identified: high-risk (70% of respondents), cannabis OK (15%), experimenting OK (10%), and low-risk (2%). All illicit drug use was considered as a moderate or high risk in the high-risk profile. Cannabis was considered less risky than other substances in the cannabis OK profile and experimenting was a less risky way of use in the experimenting OK profile. Most people in the low-risk profile considered the risks related to illicit drug use as nonexistent or minor. These representational profiles were also connected to opinions on drug policy: those who saw the most risks with use tended to support restrictive control measures, while those who considered illicit drug use to be less risky were more accepting toward harm reduction measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: Understanding the mortality of drug users using multiple substances is helpful in preventing the harmful effects of polydrug use. We examined overall and cause-specific mortality and differences in mortality based on social background among people suspected of driving under the influence and testing positive for multiple substances (DUIMS) compared with the general Finnish population. Methods: Register data from 785 DUIMS during 2003–2006 were studied, with a reference population (n = 25,381) drawn from the general Finnish population. The effect of DUIMS on all-cause and cause-specific mortality was estimated using a Poisson regression model. Results: DUIMS had an increased risk of death compared with the general population (MRR 5.3, 95% CI 4.2–6.6). The most common causes of death in DUIMS were poisonings (37.9%) and suicides (13.6%), whereas in the reference population these were cardiovascular diseases (30.8%) and cancer (26.6%). The cause-specific risk of death among DUIMS was higher in all observed causes of death, except for cancer. The effect of DUIMS on mortality was modified by age, employment status and marital status; DUIMS was associated with an elevated risk of death especially in younger age groups and in singles. Conclusions: DUIMS indicates higher mortality, and DUIMS' profiles in causes of death differ from the general population. Elevated risk for, for instance, suicidal, accidental and violent death among those using multiple substances highlights the need to also pay attention to causes of death other than poisoning/overdose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: We aimed to study a latent social structure behind the variables associated with teenagers’ cannabis use at the individual level and, in a social context, formed by school class.Methods: The data used come from the European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD), conducted in Finland in 2011 (N = 3744, response rate 89.6%). Methods used were Latent Class Analysis (LCA) and Multilevel Logistic Regression. The differences observed between pupil groups were interpreted through the concepts of social norms (conventionality of behaviour) and cultural dispositions.Findings: Four different latent classes of pupils were found: theConventionalists, theAlco-rebels, theSub-cultural conventionalistsand theSub-cultural rebels. AlthoughSub-cultural conventionalistswere aware of the cannabis culture, only a small proportion of them had ever tried cannabis. The risk for cannabis use was pronounced in all pupil groups compared toConventionalists, the risk being the highest amongSub-cultural rebels. There was statistically significant variation in the cannabis use between schools, when the individual-level variables were taken into account.Conclusions: The findings stress the cultural and normative heterogeneity of school children and the importance of the school environment. The cultural competence ofSub-cultural conventionalistscould be utilized in the preventive work. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research on cannabis cultivation has identified several factors associated with a grower's likelihood of detection by law enforcement. However, these studies are difficult to compare, as they drew from different data sources and methods, and have focused on only one geographical location. This article revisits the issue of detection using a large sample of cannabis cultivators recruited in three countries: Belgium ( n = 659), Denmark ( n = 560) and Finland ( n = 1296). Respondents were recruited in the context of a self-reported online survey conducted successively in each country between 2006 and 2008. Multivariate analyses suggest several country-specific similarities and differences. Importantly, the Finnish growers reported being arrested significantly more often than Belgians or Danes. The probability that Finnish growers would be arrested increased with time spent on growing, the size of the cultivation site and when respondents did not work alone. In Denmark, the risks increased with the size of the cultivation-related network, but decreased when respondents started growing later in life. In Belgium, no cultivation-related characteristics were associated with detection. The results indicate that the risks of apprehension for cannabis cultivation are typically country-specific. These findings are discussed in the context of country-specific policies in regards to cannabis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background This article aims to provide an overview of: demographic characteristics; experiences with growing cannabis; methods and scale of growing operations; reasons for growing; personal use of cannabis and other drugs; participation in cannabis and other drug markets; contacts with the criminal justice system for respondents to an online survey about cannabis cultivation drawn from eleven countries ( N = 6530). Important similarities and differences between the national samples recruited will be discussed. Methods This paper utilizes data from the online web survey of predominantly ‘small-scale’ cannabis cultivators in eleven countries conducted by the Global Cannabis Cultivation Research Consortium (GCCRC). Here we focus primarily on descriptive statistics to highlight key similarities and differences across the different national samples. Results Overall there was a great deal of similarity across countries in terms of: demographic characteristics; experiences with growing cannabis; methods and scale of growing operations; reasons for growing; use of cannabis and other drugs; participation in cannabis and other drug markets, and; contacts with the criminal justice system. In particular, we can recognise that a clear majority of those small-scale cannabis cultivators who responded to our survey are primarily motivated for reasons other than making money from cannabis supply and have minimal involvement in drug dealing or other criminal activities. Conclusions These growers generally come from ‘normal’ rather than ‘deviant’ backgrounds. Some differences do exist between the samples drawn from different countries suggesting that local factors (political, geographical, cultural, etc.) may have some influence on how small-scale cultivators operate, although differences in recruitment strategies in different countries may also account for some differences observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]