Psychoactive substance consumption: A Portuguese cross-sectional study

Escape or activate? Pathways of work stress on substance use

BACKGROUND

Research on the spillover effects of work stress on substance use have mainly focused on the concept of escapist substance.

OBJECTIVE

Building on the concept of self-endangering work behavior, we expand this stress-theoretic view with a presenteeism path of work-induced substance use. Contrary to emotion-based disengaging coping strategies associated with escapist use, we argue that high job demands may also promote problem-focused engagement coping, where substances are used for activation.

METHODS

A structural equation model was used to analyze both assumed pathways of stress-induced substance use with survey data from a random sample of n = 411 employees.

RESULTS

We confirmed that high job demands are directly related to escapist substance use, but indirectly related to activating substance use, mediated by presenteeism behavior. Both types of substance use are reduced in organizations with high psychosocial safety climate, but increase with higher competitive climate. Social support is related to reduced activating substance use. Males show a stronger tendency for the escapist path, whereas the presenteeism path is more prevalent in women.

CONCLUSION

Work stress may not only induce substance use as a disengaging emotional coping strategy, but also as an active problem-focused coping strategy, where employees engage in substance use to continue their efforts necessary for work-related goal attainment. A psychosocial safety climate may provide opportunities for intervening on the "cause of causes" of substance use. Moreover, due to the higher prevalence for activating substance use in female workers, previous research may have underestimated women's risks for work-induced substance use.

Detection of Eight Cannabinoids and One Tracer in Wastewater and River Water by SPE-UPLC–ESI-MS/MS

The consumption of illicit drugs represents a global social and economic problem. Using suitable analytical methods, monitoring, and detection of different illegal drugs residues and their metabolites in wastewater samples can help combat this problem. Our article defines a method to develop, validate, and practically applicate a rapid and robust analytical process for the evaluation of six naturally occurring cannabinoids (CBG, CBD, CBDV, CBN, THC, THCV), two cannabinoids in acidic form (CBDA, THCA-A), and the major cannabis-related human metabolite (THC-COOH). After SPE offline enrichment, we used a UPLC–ESI-MS/MS system, which permitted the determination of several by-products. Studied matrices were samples of different origins: (i) effluent water from a wastewater treatment plant in the Porto urban area; (ii) environmental water from Febros River, the last left-bank tributary of the Douro River. The multi-residue approach was substantiated and successfully employed to analyze the water samples collected in the above locations. The rapid and precise quantification of nine different cannabinoids in different water samples occurred within nine minutes at the ng L−1 level. The appearance of dozens of ng L−1 of some cannabis secondary metabolites, such as CBD, CBDA, CBN, THCA-A, indicates this plant species’ widespread usage among the general population in the considered area.