A public health approach to increased synthetic cannabinoid-related morbidity among New York City residents, 2014–2015

doi:10.1016/j.drugpo.2016.05.014

International Journal of Drug Policy

Volume 34, August 2016, Pages 101-103

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugpo.2016.05.014 Get rights and content

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Acknowledgement

The authors wish to thank Alex Harocopos, MS and James L. Hadler, MD, MPH of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.

Conflict of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding: Nothing declared. This research was conducted with the support of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. All authors are employees of the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. Authorization to submit and publish the enclosed manuscript was received

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Synthetic cannabinoid use among patients in residential substance use disorder treatment: Prevalence, motives, and correlates
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Pharmacology, toxicology, and adverse effects of synthetic cannabinoid drugs
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There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (4)

Increased in synthetic cannabinoids-related harms: Results from a longitudinal web-based content analysis
2017, International Journal of Drug Policy
Citation Excerpt :
Although little is known about the population of SCRA users, the population of web-forum users is not necessarily representative of the general population of SCRA users in any country. Several newspapers articles (Doward, 2015; Karlamangla, 2016; Thompson, 2016) and a scientific paper (Nolan, Allen, Kunins, & Paone, 2016) have described an increased number of ER presentations in the population of homeless due to the consumption of SCRA in the past few years, and these populations are not likely to be represented in web-forum populations. Other limitations are inherent to the field of Internet-based research.
Synthetic Cannabinoid Receptor Agonists (SCRA), also known as “K2” or “Spice,” have drawn considerable attention due to their potential of abuse and harmful consequences. More research is needed to understand user experiences of SCRA-related effects. We use semi-automated information processing techniques through eDrugTrends platform to examine SCRA-related effects and their variations through a longitudinal content analysis of web-forum data.
English language posts from three drug-focused web-forums were extracted and analyzed between January 1st 2008 and September 30th 2015. Search terms are based on the Drug Use Ontology (DAO) created for this study (189 SCRA-related and 501 effect-related terms). EDrugTrends NLP-based text processing tools were used to extract posts mentioning SCRA and their effects. Generalized linear regression was used to fit restricted cubic spline functions of time to test whether the proportion of drug-related posts that mention SCRA (and no other drug) and the proportion of these “SCRA-only” posts that mention SCRA effects have changed over time, with an adjustment for multiple testing.
19,052 SCRA-related posts (Bluelight (n = 2782), Forum A (n = 3882), and Forum B (n = 12,388)) posted by 2543 international users were extracted. The most frequently mentioned effects were “getting high” (44.0%), “hallucinations” (10.8%), and “anxiety” (10.2%). The frequency of SCRA-only posts declined steadily over the study period. The proportions of SCRA-only posts mentioning positive effects (e.g., “High” and “Euphoria”) steadily decreased, while the proportions of SCRA-only posts mentioning negative effects (e.g., “Anxiety,” ‘Nausea,” “Overdose”) increased over the same period.
This study’s findings indicate that the proportion of negative effects mentioned in web forum posts and linked to SCRA has increased over time, suggesting that recent generations of SCRA generate more harms. This is also one of the first studies to conduct automated content analysis of web forum data related to illicit drug use.
Why Switch? - Motivations for Self-Substitution of Illegal Drugs
2021, Substance Use and Misuse
Novel use of syndromic surveillance to monitor the impact of synthetic cannabinoid control measures on morbidity
2019, Injury Epidemiology
Developing Syndromic Surveillance to Monitor and Respond to Adverse Health Events Related to Psychoactive Substance Use: Methods and Applications
2017, Public Health Reports

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ViewpointA public health approach to increased synthetic cannabinoid-related morbidity among New York City residents, 2014–2015

Section snippets

Acknowledgement

First page preview

Drug and Alcohol Dependence

International Journal of Drug Policy

Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry

Community drug early warning system (CDEWS) helps to identify emerging drugs at local level

Justice Research and Statistics Association Forum

The K2/Spice phenomenon: Emergence, identification, legislation, and metabolic characterization of synthetic cannabinoids in herbal incense products

Drug Metabolism Reviews

The highs of tomorrow: Why new laws and policies are needed to meet the unique challenges of synthetic drugs

Journal of Law and Health

Pharmacology, toxicology, and adverse effects of synthetic cannabinoid drugs

Forensic Science Review

Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975–2014: Volume 2, college students and adults ages 19–55

Maryland Parole and Probation—Sanctioning Prohibited—Citation

Mar. Stat. §§ 6-119

Viewpoint
A public health approach to increased synthetic cannabinoid-related morbidity among New York City residents, 2014–2015