How may alternative drug policy settings influence criminal charges? A longitudinal study of cannabis patients and a general population sample

Privileged background protects against drug charges: A long-term population-based longitudinal study

BACKGROUND

We investigated the importance of indicators of parental socio-economic status (SES) for getting an official drug charge, while we controlled for self-reported drug law infractions (use of illegal drugs and/or drug trafficking) and potential variables confounding the association.

METHODS

We used data from the long-term, population based longitudinal Young in Norway Study (N = 2,549). Participants were followed up over four survey-based data collections with linkages to crime registers from adolescence to adulthood. Data on drug charges were assessed based on official registers. The use of illegal substances, involvement with drug trafficking and potential covariates such as involvement with other types of crime, academic resources, and risk factors in the family, were assessed by means of self-reports.

RESULTS

Two per cent had been charged for drug-related offences, and 37% reported drug offending. Use of cannabis was the primary infraction statistically related to a criminal charge. Having parents with 4+ years university education (14% of the sample) was associated with lower risk for being charged than having parents with no higher education (OR 4.87; 95% CI: 1.16-20.52) or with a short university education (OR 4.76; 1.05-21.48). The association between parental education and drug charges remained stable when controlling for self-reported drug law infractions and other potential covariates.

CONCLUSION

In Norway, adolescents who have parents with higher university education, may be protected from getting a drug charge, even though they report similar levels of drug law infractions as other adolescents.

Sample preparation and instrumental methods for illicit drugs in environmental and biological samples: A review

Detection of illicit drugs in the environmental samples has been challenged as the consumption increases globally. Current review examines the recent developments and applications of sample preparation techniques for illicit drugs in solid, liquid, and gas samples. For solid samples, traditional sample preparation methods such as liquid-phase extraction, solid-phase extraction, and the ones with external energy including microwave-assisted, ultrasonic-assisted, and pressurized liquid extraction were commonly used. The sample preparation methods mainly applied for liquid samples were microextraction techniques including solid-phase microextraction, microextraction by packed sorbent, dispersive solid-phase extraction, dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction, hollow fiber-based liquid-phase microextraction, and so on. Capillary microextraction of volatiles and airborne particulate sampling were primarily utilized to extract illicit drugs from gas samples. Besides, the paper introduced recently developed instrumental techniques applied to detect illicit drugs. Liquid chromatograph mass spectrometry and gas chromatograph mass spectrometry were the most widely used methods for illicit drugs samples. In addition, the development of ambient mass spectrometry techniques, such as desorption electrospray ionization mass spectrometry and paper spray mass spectrometry, created potential for rapid in-situ analysis.