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Research has demonstrated an association between e-cigarette use (vaping) and initiation of combustible cigarette (tobacco) use among youth. This study used data from a US national sample (N=3426, age 15–27) to examine the magnitude of this association among youth with e-cigarette use from 2017 to 2019, when “pod mod” devices—which deliver high nicotine concentrations—had the largest share of the market.
- Compared with youth who had never had e-cigarette use, those who initiated it in 2018 were 7 times more likely to initiate combustible cigarette use in 2019 (adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 7.29), and 8 times more likely to have current combustible cigarette use (aOR, 8.26).
- Other predictors of combustible cigarette use included male gender, household tobacco use, and sensation seeking.
Comments: E-cigarette use during adolescence greatly increases the risk of later combustible cigarette use. The popularity of vaping is a concern because the vast majority of adults with combustible cigarette use initiated it in their teen years. While e-cigarettes were introduced to the marketplace as a solution to the public health problem of smoking, the popularity of “pod mod” devices among adolescents may result in these devices introducing a greater number people to smoking than the number of those they help to quit.
Sharon Levy, MD
Reference: Hair EC, Barton AA, Perks SN, et al. Association between e-cigarette use and future combustible cigarette use: evidence from a prospective cohort of youth and young adults, 2017–2019. Add Behav. 2021;112:106593.
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Many people who use cocaine and other drugs return to drug use even after prolonged abstinence. Resumption of drug use often is driven by drug-associated memories that are retrieved when the person is exposed to drug cues. The results of a recent study in rats suggest that some neuronal connections (i.e., synapses) that encode cocaine-associated memories are not static but weaken for approximately 6 hours after they are retrieved and that holding these synapses in their weakened state may reduce return to cocaine use.
https://www.drugabuse.gov/news-events/nida-notes/2021/02/disrupting-cocaine-memories-prevents-return-cocaine-use-in-rats
(Dalgarno Institute Comment: It is important to note the ‘recalibrating’ of both brain and cellular memory is motivated by behavioural action, not chemical engagement - See also Humpty Dumpty Resiliency Ed. S. 6: Rebellion & Experimentation P2: From Thermometer to Thermostat (https://nobrainer.org.au/images/humpty-dumpty/RewardExploration_-_Part_Two.pdf )
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- Dating violence was nearly twice as likely if either partner drank alcohol.
- Women were nearly twice as apt to perpetrate dating violence when they used drugs.
- Men were 1.4 times more likely to perpetrate dating violence when they used drugs.
- Estimated blood alcohol level and binge drinking were related to dating violence.
Introduction: Although the association between substance use and dating violence is well-established in the research literature, there is limited research establishing the temporal co-occurrence of these variables. The primary objective was to examine the temporal relationship between alcohol and drug use and subsequent dating violence using a proximal effects model.
Conclusions: These results further support an association between substance use and partner aggression at daily and situational levels of analysis, extending prior clinical findings to a college dating sample. Taken with previous research findings, our results suggest the need for college sexual assault and dating violence prevention programs to target reductions in substance use.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352853220301243
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BBC News
A drug that was weaponised by the UK's most prolific rapist and the serial killer Stephen Port should be reclassified, says an official report
Currently GHB is in class C, with anabolic steroids and some tranquilisers.
- What is killer drug GHB?
- Stephen Port: The killer the police missed
- Gerald Matovu: The link between a Grindr murderer and a serial killer
- Reynhard Sinaga: The sexual predator who waited outside nightclubs
The official review was commissioned following calls for a change in the law by the children of a man who was murdered with the drug.
Eric Michels, a father of three from south London, was killed in 2018 by a GHB dealer who gave him a catastrophic overdose in order to steal from him.
His sons Sam and Josh campaigned for the drug to be reclassified.
"Today is a positive day," Sam Michels told the BBC but said he thought GHB should be a Class A drug.
Assessment of the harms of (GHB) gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, gamma-butyrolactone, and closely related compounds Research & Analysis: