During the 1990s, youths across the nation (especially in inner-cities) have increasingly disdained crack, but expanded their interest in marijuana. Limited ethnographic findings from other projects strongly suggest that the renewed interest in marijuana might reflect an emerging practice of blunt smoking (marijuana wrapped with a cigar shell and smoked via deep inhalation) and that a new subcultural pattern is emergent. The project has the following aims:
Aim A: (Use Practices) To analyze the use patterns, conduct norms, subcultures, and variations in youthful marijuana and blunt use; to identify how these are related to use of other illegal drugs and tobacco products.
Aim B: (Social Settings) To analyze the social, economic, and physical contexts (both private and public) where youths create and maintain (both legally and illegally) their regular consumption of marijuana, tobacco, and blunts.
Aim C: (Markets) To scientifically document the interaction of retail markets associated with blunt use regarding access to various tobacco products with marijuana and other illegal drug markets.
Aim D: (Integrate Qualitative and Quantitative Analysis) To establish the findings by developing quantitative instruments, and analyzing data about types of smoking behaviors among larger samples of youths. The project will interview, observe and follow over the course of five years (an omnibus longitudinal ethnography), focal subjects recruited at ages 11-26 from Harlem and the Lower East Side of New York City; focal subjects will beta selected to represent diverse age groups, ethnicities, and substance use patterns. This ethnography will delineate current blunt use practices, impacts upon lifestyles, maturation, and the evolution of youthful drug subcultures. The project includes two modest quantitative analyses. A secondary analysis of a New York City School Survey and Peer Group Questionnaires will help establish the prevalence of marijuana and/or blunt use patterns among New York City youths within ethnicity and age groups and show whether the experiences of ethnographic focal subjects are typical A vigorous publication agenda will integrate qualitative and quantitative findings across time and subjects' lives and identify policy implications of this preferred substance use pattern among many youths coming of age in first decade of the 21st Century.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01DA013690-05
Application #
7049415
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZRG1-SNEM-1 (01))
Program Officer
Deeds, Bethany
Project Start
2002-04-01
Project End
2008-03-31
Budget Start
2006-04-01
Budget End
2008-03-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2006
Total Cost
$456,698
Indirect Cost
Name
National Development & Research Institutes
Department
Type
DUNS #
080481880
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10010
Wolfe, Hannah; Haller, Deborah L; Benoit, Ellen et al. (2013) Developing PeerLink to engage out-of-care HIV+ substance users: training peers to deliver a peer-led motivational intervention with fidelity. AIDS Care 25:888-94
Elliott, Luther; Golub, Andrew; Dunlap, Eloise (2012) Off the street and into ""the cut"": deterrence and displacement in NYC's quality of life marijuana policing. Int J Drug Policy 23:210-9
Golub, Andrew; Dunlap, Eloise; Benoit, Ellen (2010) Drug use and conflict in inner-city African-American relationships in the 2000s. J Psychoactive Drugs 42:327-37
Johnson, Bruce D; Golub, Andrew; McCabe, James (2010) THE INTERNATIONAL IMPLICATIONS OF QUALITY-OF-LIFE POLICING AS PRACTICED IN NEW YORK CITY. Police Pract Res 11:17-29
Kotarba, Joseph A; Fackler, Jennifer; Johnson, Bruce D et al. (2010) The melding of drug markets in Houston after Katrina: dealer and user perspectives. Subst Use Misuse 45:1390-405
Johnson, Bruce D; Dunlap, Eloise; Benoit, Ellen (2010) Organizing ""mountains of words"" for data analysis, both qualitative and quantitative. Subst Use Misuse 45:648-70
Ream, Geoffrey L; Johnson, Bruce D; Dunlap, Eloise et al. (2010) The role of marijuana use etiquette in avoiding targeted police enforcement. Drugs (Abingdon Engl) 17:689-706
Dunlap, Eloise; Johnson, Bruce D; Kotarba, Joseph A et al. (2009) Making connections: New Orleans Evacuees' experiences in obtaining drugs. J Psychoactive Drugs 41:219-26
Dunlap, Eloise; Golub, Andrew; Johnson, Bruce D et al. (2009) Normalization of violence: experiences of childhood abuse by inner-city crack users. J Ethn Subst Abuse 8:15-34
Sabet, Kevin A; Johnson, Bruce D (2008) Marijuana Treatment Entries Did Not Decrease After Aggressive Arrest Policies Were Implemented in New York City. Justice Res Policy 10:39-59

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