Du Toit examines the results of two surveys which he made a decade apart among high school students of Black, Indian, White, and Colored backgrounds. The initial survey showed some acceptance of the use of these substances among a small proportion of high school students but a high degree of intolerance of such use by the majority. Over a ten-year period, the attitudes of the different population groups changed somewhat. The decade represented in this study saw major changes in social and political conditions in South Africa. These changes tended to reduce the significance of cultural factors influencing cannabis use among members of the black population.
The book contains review articles providing a comprehensive overview of cannabis/marijuana’s diverse healing aspects in human healthcare (medicinal, nutraceutical, skincare, etc.). The research articles include the role of cannabis in cancer treatment, drug discovery, cosmeceutical potential, prophylactic and therapeutic use for treating neuropathic pain and migraine, pharmacokinetics, safety profile, and issues related to the consumption of cannabis/marijuana. Another salient feature of the book is a complete mapping and region- and sector-wise critical analysis of cannabis/marijuana patents on healthcare and future directions for the benefit of researchers and businesses/entrepreneurs interested in the rapidly advancing area of cannabis. The text describes cannabis/marijuana’s detailed legal aspects, production prospects, and applications for healthcare and recreational purposes in the USA. It traces the traditional roots of cannabis use in Turkey, Israel, the Middle East, Africa, and India. This unique compendium of articles will be useful as a reference book for students, researchers, academics, business houses, and all individuals interested in medicinal, nutraceutical, cosmeceutical, traditional, legal, and commercial aspects of cannabis usage.
Significant changes have taken place in the policy landscape surrounding cannabis legalization, production, and use. During the past 20 years, 25 states and the District of Columbia have legalized cannabis and/or cannabidiol (a component of cannabis) for medical conditions or retail sales at the state level and 4 states have legalized both the medical and recreational use of cannabis. These landmark changes in policy have impacted cannabis use patterns and perceived levels of risk. However, despite this changing landscape, evidence regarding the short- and long-term health effects of cannabis use remains elusive. While a myriad of studies have examined cannabis use in all its various forms, often these research conclusions are not appropriately synthesized, translated for, or communicated to policy makers, health care providers, state health officials, or other stakeholders who have been charged with influencing and enacting policies, procedures, and laws related to cannabis use. Unlike other controlled substances such as alcohol or tobacco, no accepted standards for safe use or appropriate dose are available to help guide individuals as they make choices regarding the issues of if, when, where, and how to use cannabis safely and, in regard to therapeutic uses, effectively. Shifting public sentiment, conflicting and impeded scientific research, and legislative battles have fueled the debate about what, if any, harms or benefits can be attributed to the use of cannabis or its derivatives, and this lack of aggregated knowledge has broad public health implications. The Health Effects of Cannabis and Cannabinoids provides a comprehensive review of scientific evidence related to the health effects and potential therapeutic benefits of cannabis. This report provides a research agendaâ€"outlining gaps in current knowledge and opportunities for providing additional insight into these issuesâ€"that summarizes and prioritizes pressing research needs.
After arriving from South Asia approximately a thousand years ago, cannabis quickly spread throughout the African continent. European accounts of cannabis in Africa—often fictionalized and reliant upon racial stereotypes—shaped widespread myths about the plant and were used to depict the continent as a cultural backwater and Africans as predisposed to drug use. These myths continue to influence contemporary thinking about cannabis. In The African Roots of Marijuana, Chris S. Duvall corrects common misconceptions while providing an authoritative history of cannabis as it flowed into, throughout, and out of Africa. Duvall shows how preexisting smoking cultures in Africa transformed the plant into a fast-acting and easily dosed drug and how it later became linked with global capitalism and the slave trade. People often used cannabis to cope with oppressive working conditions under colonialism, as a recreational drug, and in religious and political movements. This expansive look at Africa's importance to the development of human knowledge about marijuana will challenge everything readers thought they knew about one of the world's most ubiquitous plants.
Drawing on contributions from seven countries in Africa; two countries in Europe; and seven countries in the Americas, this volume examines the relationships between drug use, drug trafficking, drug controls and the black population of a given society. Each chapter examines the nature and pattern of drug use or abuse; the effects of drug use or abuse (illegal or/and legal) on other areas such as health and crime; the nature, pattern, and perpetration of trafficking and sale of illegal or/and legal drugs; and past and current policies and control of illegal and /or legal drugs. It will be essential reading for all students, academics and policy-makers working in the area of drug control.
Throughout the African American community, individuals and organizations ranging from churches to schools to drug treatment centers are fighting the widespread use of crack cocaine. To put that fight in a larger cultural context, Doin' Drugs explores historical patterns of alcohol and drug use from pre-slavery Africa to present-day urban America. William Henry James and Stephen Lloyd Johnson document the role of alcohol and other drugs in traditional African cultures, among African slaves before the American Civil War, and in contemporary African American society, which has experienced the epidemics of marijuana, heroin, crack cocaine, and gangs since the beginning of this century. The authors zero in on the interplay of addiction and race to uncover the social and psychological factors that underlie addiction. James and Johnson also highlight many culturally informed programs, particularly those sponsored by African American churches, that are successfully breaking the patterns of addiction. The authors hope that the information in this book will be used to train a new generation of counselors, ministers, social workers, nurses, and physicians to be better prepared to face the epidemic of drug addiction in African American communities.
Drawing on the testimonies of local people, from contra collaborators and ex-combatants to pro-Sandinista peasants, this dynamic account of a generation of rural instability explores the growing divisions between the peasants who took up arms in defense of revolutionary programs and ideals, such as land reform and equality, and those who opposed the Sandinistas.
Substance abuse is an enormous social problem in South Africa, as elsewhere. But in South Africa in particular, tik (crystal meth, or methamphetamine) and alcohol are devastating society, aggravating poverty and crime, and contributing to child abuse and gender violence. Substance Use and Abuse in South Africa has arisen out of the thriving Brain-Behaviour Initiative (BBI) at the University of Cape Town, which relates neuroscience and behavioural science to social issues. This ground-breaking book looks at the problem of substance abuse from multiple perspectives and particularly in the light of recent discoveries in brain and behavioural science, but also takes a public health view. Its focus ranges from brain imaging and dopaminergic neurocircuitry to policy and prevention, and is written by local researchers at the cutting edge.
