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Awareness of Novel Drug Legality in a Young Adult Population

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Abstract

In recent years, use of substances commonly referred to as ‘legal highs’ has become a significant concern to policy makers and public health officials. Though legislation banning the use and possession of these novel and synthetic drugs often follows the initial media attention and public outcry, potential users may often be unaware of the legislation. A survey including self-reported drug use and perceptions of the legality of various psychoactive substances was administered to 2,346 students in randomly selected classes at a large public university to determine what portion accurately knew four types of novel drugs were locally illegal. Results indicated that numerous potential and current users incorrectly believed that the former ‘legal highs’ remained unrestricted. This sample did include a number of novel drug users; lifetime use of at least one novel drug was reported by 17.1 %, many of which reported using multiple types of novel drugs. Approximately one-third of the overall sample inaccurately believed that Salvia divinorum (34.7 %), K2/Spice (36.5 %), and Mr. Miyagi/Pot-pourri (32.1 %) were legal in the state and over half (50.3 %) inaccurately believed ‘bath salts’ (synthetic cathinones, MDPV, and other synthetic stimulants) remained legal. As these misperceptions have the potential to influence substance use decisions, they may need to be corrected through educational campaigns as widespread as the preceding media coverage that labeled the drug as ‘legal highs.’ Results also indicated that Blacks and previous users of the substances were more likely to hold inaccurate legal beliefs.

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Notes

  1. Throughout the data entry process, the project manager checked a random 25 % of the cases entered by each of the four research assistants and found no systematic patterns of errors. As survey respondents simply were asked to check boxes, the research assistants’ function was to transfer data rather than score or assess responses. Errors that were identified by the project manager were corrected. Once all date entry was complete, the primary investigator randomly sampled 10 % of the cases to assess the quality of data entry. An error rate of less than 1 % indicated that entry errors were rare and unlikely to influence results.

  2. This response rate represents the sample size divided by the number of students enrolled in the courses after the final day to add courses minus the number of duplicates (students in multiple courses). Students at the university are able to drop courses after this date with minor penalty, but we could not obtain access to these records. Thus, the actual response rate is likely somewhat higher than the conservative estimate of 80.4 %. The majority of missing data is likely due to students being absent from class. Those attending class and preferring not to participate were instructed to simply return the survey blank. Less than 50 students took advantage of this option.

  3. On March 1, 2011, the DEA placed five chemicals associated with the K2 and Spice brands of synthetic cannabinoids into Schedule I on an emergency basis (JWH-018, JWH-073, JWH-200, CP-47,497, and CP-47,497 C8 homologue). On July 9, 2012, the Synthetic Drug Abuse Prevention Act, 2012 was signed into law placing all synthetic cannabinoids into Schedule I of the Controlled Substance Act (CSA). On May 16, 2013, three additional substances (UR-144, XLR-11, and AKB-48) were placed on a temporary ban by the Federal Government (Drug Enforcement Administration 2013). Prior to this Federal action, the State of Georgia placed several regulations on synthetic cannabinoids. On May 24, 2010, several chemicals including some of those often contained in the Spice and K2 brands (JWH-018, HU-210, CP-47,497, and Oleamide) were banned (Georgia House Bill 1309, 2010). In May 2011, additional synthetic cannabinoids (JWH-200, JWH-250, and JWH-081) thought to be frequently contained in within the Mr. Miyagi and Pot-pourri product lines were placed into Schedule I status in Georgia (Georgia Senate Bill 93, 2011). In June 2012, the Georgia Pharmacy Board issued an emergency rule adding the synthetic cannabinoids UR-144, XLR11, URB-602, A-796-260, and URB597 to Schedule I status in Georgia (Official Code of Georgia Annotated § 16-13-25, 2012). Under this new emergency rule classification of all newly discovered compounds of synthetic cannabinoids will be placed as a Schedule I substances under the Georgia Controlled Substances Act.

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Role of Funding Sources

This study was supported in part by funds from the Office of the Vice President for Research and the Jack N. Averitt College of Graduate Studies at Georgia Southern University. The office and college had no role in the study design, collection, analysis or interpretation of the data, writing the manuscript, or the decision to submit the paper for publication.

Conflicts of interest

Each of the authors report no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, Georgia Southern University, P.O. Box 8105, Statesboro, GA, 30460-8105, USA

    Michael Singleton & Bryan Lee Miller

  2. Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 9201 University City Blvd., Charlotte, NC, 28223, USA

    John M. Stogner

Authors
  1. Michael Singleton
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  2. John M. Stogner
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  3. Bryan Lee Miller
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Correspondence to John M. Stogner.

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Singleton, M., Stogner, J.M. & Miller, B.L. Awareness of Novel Drug Legality in a Young Adult Population. Am J Crim Just 39, 425–435 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-013-9221-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12103-013-9221-7

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