Population-level Analyses of Multi-drug Consumption

描述(由申请者提供)：NIDA定义了其在减少药物滥用造成的危害方面的作用。为了实现这一目标，有必要了解有助于减少这些物质消费的机制，无论是在行为上还是在生物上，以及在个人和人口层面上。不幸的是，目前对多种精神活性物质在人群中同时消费的情况知之甚少，例如大麻和鸦片类药物；一种或两种药物在美国和世界其他地区都是非法的，这使得无法收集和分析人口层面的可靠消费和相关数据。在此背景下，该项目的广泛目标是探索和填补这一空白。具体地说，该项目的目的是通过使用最近发现的关于多种成瘾物质消费的独特的、极其丰富和可靠的数据集进行一系列分析，显著提高我们对这些物质消费人群的行为的了解。该数据集将包含英属印度50多个区在20世纪初30年期间关于酒精(多种形式/强度)、鸦片和大麻(多种形式，即charas(印度大麻)、ganja和bang(直叶))消费和价格的年度人口水平统计数据。还将收集和输入关于工资、生活费用、税收和各种其他相关经济和非经济信息的相应信息。这一独特的数据集将使实现至少六个具体目标成为可能，其中包括：(1)利用法律数据分析这些物质中每一种物质的成瘾性(使用成瘾的经济模型)；(2)所有这些物质(包括其各种形式，如大麻和酒精，以及它们的各种强度，如酒精)之间的替代性和互补性；(3)在同一物质和其他物质存在不同形式和强度的情况下，在人口一级对大麻、酒精和鸦片消费的价格敏感性，(4)对取决于其中一些物质的强度的不同行为进行分析(例如基于酒精含量的酒精和基于形式的大麻，每种物质具有不同的效力(即Charas与Ganja相比))；(5)一种或多种物质或物质的消费是否倾向于在时间上系统地领先于其他一种或多种物质的消费，以及(6)多种物质在不同强度和形式下的相互关系(第(2)和(5)项)，作为一个具有图论所揭示的特征的系统。这些分析产生的知识体系将通过提供减少药物消费造成的危害的战略来极大地推动药物研究。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): NIDA defines its role in terms of reducing the harm caused by drug abuse. In order to achieve this goal, it is necessary to understand the mechanisms that contribute to reductions in the consumption of these substances, both behavioral and biological, and at both the individual and population levels. Unfortunately, very little is known today about the simultaneous consumption at the population level of multiple psychoactive substances, such as cannabinoids and opiates; one or both sets of substances are illegal in the U.S.A. and the rest of the world, making reliable consumption and related data at the population level impossible to collect and analyze. In this context, the broad goal of this project is to explore and fill this gap. Specifically, the aim of this project is to significantly advance our knowledge of the behavior of multiple drug-consuming populations with a series of analyses using a unique recently-discovered and extraordinarily rich and reliable dataset on the consumption of multiple addictive substances collected at a time when the consumption of these substances was legal. The dataset will contain annual population-level statistics for over fifty districts from British India over a three-decade period in the early 20th century on the consumption and prices of alcohol (in multiple forms/strengths), opium, and cannabis (in multiple forms, namely charas (hashish), ganja, and bhang (straight leaf)). Corresponding information on wages, the cost of living, taxation and a variety of other pertinent economic and non-economic information will also be collected and entered. This unique dataset will enable the pursuit of at least six specific aims, including analyses of (i) the addictiveness (using economic models of addiction) of each of these substances in a multi-substance setting using legal data, (ii) substitution and complementarity of all of these substances (including their various forms, as in marijuana and alcohol, and their various strengths, as in alcohol) with one another, (iii) the price sensitivity at the population level of marijuana, alcohol, and opium consumption in the presence of different forms and strengths of the same and other substances, (iv) the analysis of differential behavior depending on the strength of some of these substances (such as alcohol based on alcohol content and cannabinoids based on form, each of which has a different potency (i.e., charas vs. ganja vs. bhang)), (v) whether the consumption of one or more substances or forms of substances tends to systematically precede in time the consumption of one or more of the other substances or forms of substances, and (vi) the interrelationships of the multiple substances in their various strengths and forms ((ii) and (v) above) as a system with characteristics informed by graph theory. The body of knowledge generated by these analyses will significantly advance drug research by informing strategies for reducing the harm caused by drug consumption.