Archiv der Kategorie: Wasser

With weed these days

Veröffentlicht am von

Does Legalizing Cannabis Increase Adolescent Use? This Expert Found Mixed Results.

Contrary to expectation, a major study found that weed use among minors was lower in states where the drug was legal.

With weed these days, it’s a Willy Wonka world: chocolate bars, lollipops, exotic-flavored gummies — to say nothing of joints, vapes, drinks and the rest. Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia have now legalized the sale of marijuana for recreational use, prompting innovation, lowering prices and making the drug — more potent than ever — more widely available. The Biden administration this week recommended easing the federal regulations on cannabis.

What does all of this mean for adolescents?

Studies have demonstrated that marijuana use can harm the developing brain. Some new strains have been linked to psychosis. Many health experts have worried that relaxing the laws around cannabis will lead to more use of the drug among minors. But Rebekah Levine Coley, a developmental psychologist at Boston College, is less certain.

In April, she and colleagues published a study in JAMA that examined drug use patterns among 900,000 high school students from 2011 to 2021, using self-reported data from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. They found that fewer minors reported having used cannabis in the previous month in states where the drug had been legalized. But they also found that in the 18 states that had both legalized cannabis and allowed retail sales of the drug, some adolescents who were users of the drug used it more frequently. The net effect was a flat or slight decline in cannabis use among adolescents.

Dr. Coley spoke to The New York Times about the study, and its implications for state and federal drug policy. This conversation has been edited and condensed for clarity.

It seems sensible to assume that legalizing marijuana would lead to more use by young people.

Yes, common sense might argue that as cannabis becomes legalized, it will be more accessible. There will be fewer potential legal repercussions, hence availability would increase and use would increase.

We did not find that with adolescents. If anything, we are seeing very small declines in cannabis use in states that legalized recreational cannabis, as well as declines in alcohol use and e-cigarettes.

What’s the connection to those substances?

There are different theories. Some argue that individuals often use substances together. So if you increase the use of one substance, you’re likely to increase the use of other substances. Similarly, if you decrease one substance, you may decrease other substances as well.

Why would marijuana use go down as the drug has been legalized?

One possible explanation is that moving cannabis from the illegal market and street sales into the legal marketplace, where access is restricted for people under 21, has actually lowered access for adolescents.

Another theory is that as cannabis has become legalized, parents and others are more aware of potential access for their children, and that parents are having more discussions with adolescents about the potential risks or imposing more supervision.

Alcohol was legal in prior generations, and parents were aware, yet binge drinking soared in the 1980s and 1990s. How is the current situation different?

There are different types of awareness. Some of the public-health campaigns about the danger of cigarettes and the severe health implications of tobacco use have definitely had an effect in lowering use, particularly among young people, and stopping people from starting cigarette use in the first place. We also have seen some success in slowing an extremely rapid rise in e-cigarettes.

It’s also important to point out that substance use overall has decreased quite notably among adolescents.

Another idea is that there is a growing norm among adolescents toward overachievement and control and against hedonism, and much less time with peers. But these explanations can help to explain overall trends in adolescent risk behaviors and substance use. They do not explain the state-to-state differences that we found, in which legalization of recreational cannabis was linked with lowering substance use.

You did find some trends that conflicted. Can you explain?

We found that after states enacted legal commercial sales of cannabis for adults aged 21 and above, the number of adolescents reporting no cannabis use in the previous month increased. At the same time, among adolescents who were users, their frequency of use increased. That’s a problem because early and heavy use of cannabis is particularly concerning.

Is there some other commonality among the states that legalized cannabis that might explain the patterns in adolescent use?

That’s possible. We do adjust for many state characteristics, like unemployment rates and other substance-use policies that may indicate a more liberal or conservative state culture and policy context overall. But that still doesn’t allow us to definitely prove that cause and effect — that is, whether legalization is causing changes in youth substance use.

You’re showing correlation.

Right. Cause and effect remains an open question.

How do these results affect how you think about policy changes that might relax cannabis laws at the federal level?

The evidence provides some hope that increasing legalization, even at a federal level, will not lead to substantial increases in adolescent use. That said, we know that there are some notable potential health implications of adolescent use of cannabis. For example, vaping and the consumption of edibles are particularly attractive to teens and also are harder to dose, and there is strong evidence that earlier entry into substance use is linked to a higher likelihood of abuse and dependence. So continuing to track adolescent use of cannabis and other substances remains a key public health concern.

The New York Times 22.5.2024

Zyklen der Natur

Veröffentlicht am von


Frauen gehen bei solchen Familiengeschichten eben viel geschickter vor als Männer, das ist ihnen gewissermaßen in die Wiege gelegt, und selbst wenn keine Kinder anwesend sind, geben diese immer einen potentiellen Gesprächsstoff ab, und alte Leute interessieren sich bekanntermaßen für ihre Enkelkinder, sie verbinden das mit den Zyklen der Natur oder so, auf jeden Fall entsteht dabei so etwas wie Rührung in ihrem alten Kopf, der Sohn ist zwar der Tod des Vaters, das steht fest, aber für einen Großvater ist der Enkel eine Art Wiedergeburt oder Revanche, und zumindest für die Dauer eines Weihnachtsessens kann so etwas durchaus genügen.

Seite 19

Michel Houellebecq: KARTE UND GEBIET
Roman Aus dem Französischen von Uli Wittmann
© 2010 Michel Houellebecq/Flammarion
Die französische Originalausgabe erschien 2010 unter dem Titel
La carte et le territoire bei Flammarion, Paris. © 2011 für die deutsche Ausgabe: DuMont Buchverlag, Köln

Kompensation für Probleme privater Art

Veröffentlicht am von

Wissen Sie«, fügte er noch hinzu, »ich habe immer die widerwärtige, wenn auch sehr überzeugende These verabscheut, dass ein vordergründig uneigennütziges, großzügiges politisches oder soziales Engagement in den meisten Fällen nur eine Kompensation für Probleme privater Art sei.«

Seite 254

Michel Houellebecq: KARTE UND GEBIET
Roman Aus dem Französischen von Uli Wittmann
© 2010 Michel Houellebecq/Flammarion
Die französische Originalausgabe erschien 2010 unter dem Titel
La carte et le territoire bei Flammarion, Paris. © 2011 für die deutsche Ausgabe: DuMont Buchverlag, Köln

Deutsche Turnkunst

Veröffentlicht am von

Seltsam sei es und ungerecht, sagte Gauß, so recht ein Beispiel für die erbärmliche Zufälligkeit der Existenz, daß man in einer bestimmten Zeit geboren und ihr verhaftet sei, ob man wolle oder nicht. Es verschaffe einem einen unziemlichen Vorteil vor der Vergangenheit und mache einen zum Clown der Zukunft.
Eugen nickte schläfrig.

Sogar ein Verstand wie der seine, sagte Gauß, hätte in frühen Menschheitsaltern oder an den Ufern des Orinoko nichts zu leisten vermocht, wohingegen jeder Dummkopf in zweihundert Jahren sich über ihn lustig machen und absurden Unsinn über seine Person erfinden könne.

Er überlegte, nannte Eugen noch einmal einen Versager und widmete sich dem Buch. Während er las, starrte Eugen angestrengt aus dem Kutschenfenster, um sein vor Kränkung und Wut verzerrtes Gesicht zu verbergen.

In der Deutschen Turnkunst ging es um Gymnastikgeräte. Ausführlich beschrieb der Autor Vorrichtungen, die er sich ausgedacht hatte, damit man auf ihnen herumklimmen könne. Eine nannte er Pferd, eine andere den Balken, wieder eine andere den Bock.

Der Kerl sei von Sinnen, sagte Gauß, öffnete das Fenster und warf das Buch hinaus.

Daniel Kehlmann
Die Vermessung der Welt, Seite 9
Roman
Copyright © 2005 by Rowohlt Verlag GmbH, Reinbek bei Hamburg

The piper

Veröffentlicht am von

„I’s gone!“ sighed the Rat, sinking back in his seat again. „So beautiful and strange and new! Since it was to end so soon, I almost wish I had never heard it. For it has roused a longing in me that is pain, and nothing seems worth while but just to hear that sound once more and go on listening to it for ever. No!

There it is again!“ he cried, alert once more. Entranced, he was silent for a long space, spellbound.

„Now it passes on and I begin to lose it,“ he said presently. „O, Mole! the beauty of it! The merry bubble and joy, the thin, clear happy call of the distant piping! Such music I never dreamed of, and the call in it is stronger even than the music is sweet! Row on, Mole, row! For the music and the call must be for us.“ The Mole, greatly wondering, obeyed. „I hear nothing myself,“ he said, „but the wind playing in the reeds and rushes and osiers.“

The Rat never answered, if indeed he heard. Rapt, transported, trembling, he was possessed in all his senses by this new divine thing that caught up his helpless soul and swung and dandled it, a powerless but happy infant in a strong sustaining grasp.

In silence Mole rowed steadily, and soon they came to a point where the river divided, a long backwater branching off to one side. With a slight movement of his head Rat, who had long dropped the rudder-lines, directed the rower to take the backwater. The creeping tide of light gained and gained, and now they could see the colour of the flowers that gemmed the water’s edge.

„Clearer and nearer still,“ cried the Rat joyously.

„Now you must surely hear it! Ah – at last – I see you do!“

Breathless and transfixed the Mole stopped rowing as the liquid run of that glad piping broke on him like a wave, caught him up, and possessed him utterly. He saw the tears on his comrade’s cheeks, and bowed his head and understood. For a space they hung there, brushed by the purple loosestrife that fringed the bank; then the clear imperious summons that marched hand-in-hand with the intoxicating melody imposed its will on Mole, and mechanically he bent to his oars again. And the light grew steadily stronger, but no birds sang as they were wont to do at the approach of dawn; and but for the heavenly music all was marvellously still.

On either side of them, as they glided onwards, the rich meadow-grass seemed that morning of a freshness and a greenness unsurpassable. Never had they noticed the roses so vivid, the willowherb so riotous, the meadow-sweet so odorous and pervading. Then the murmur of the approaching weir began to hold the air, and they felt a consciousness that they were nearing the end, whatever it might be, that surely awaited their expedition.

Kenneth Grahame: The wind in the willows – 1908
Kenneth Grahame: Der Wind in den Weiden | Gelesen von Harry Rowohlt

always wanting you to do something

Veröffentlicht am von

„The bank is so crowded nowadays that many people are moving away altogether. O no, it isn’t what it used to be, at all. Otters, kingfishers, dabchicks, moorhens, all of them about all day long and always wanting you to do something – as if a fellow had no business of his own to attend to!“

Kenneth Grahame: The wind in the willows – 1908
Kenneth Grahame: Der Wind in den Weiden | Gelesen von Harry Rowohlt

„messing – about – in – boats; messing -„

Veröffentlicht am von

„Nice? It’s the only thing,“ said the Water Rat solemnly, as he leant forward for his stroke. „Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing – half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing,“ he went on dreamily:

„messing – about – in – boats; messing -„

„Look ahead, Rat!“ cried the Mole suddenly.

It was too late. The boat struck the bank full tilt.

The dreamer, the joyous oarsman, lay on his back at the bottom of the boat, his heels in the air.

„- about in boats – or with boats,“ the Rat went on composedly, picking himself up with a pleasant laugh. 

„In or out of ‚em, it doesn’t matter. Nothing seems really to matter, that’s the charm of it.“

„Whether you get away, or whether you don’t; whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you’re always busy, and you never do anything in particular; and when you’ve done it there’s always something else to do, and you can do it if you like, but you’d much better not.“

„Look here! If you’ve really nothing else on hand this morning, supposing we drop down the river together, and have a long day of it?“

The Mole waggled his toes from sheer happiness, spread his chest with a sigh of full contentment, and leaned back blissfully into the soft cushions. „What a day I’m having!“ he said. „Let us start at once!“

Kenneth Grahame: The wind in the willows – 1908
Kenneth Grahame: Der Wind in den Weiden | Gelesen von Harry Rowohlt

Rammstein

Veröffentlicht am von

Naivität ist kein Verbrechen, schon gar keines, das mit Übergriffigkeiten von leicht ranzigen Typen bestraft werden sollte. Allerdings wäre es für Fans auch kein Fehler, erst einmal anzunehmen, dass jeder „Star“ von zu viel Geld, zu viel Drogen und zu viel Arschkriechern bis in den Boden seiner bankrotten Seele korrumpiert wurde und man keine menschenähnlichen Verhaltensweisen erwarten darf. So lange, bis das Gegenteil bewiesen ist, gilt die Verrottungsvermutung.

Susanne Fischer,
14.6.2023 taz