| Attempts to understand and intervene in the drugs-crime cycle have traditionally drawn upon a wide variety of conceptual models. ImpacTeen, a research program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, is designed to examine the relationship between law, policy, environmental factors and youth substance use. It is the purpose of this paper to present a conceptual model, developed for ImpacTeen, to understand and reduce illicit drug use. The model includes state drug law policies ranging from strict prohibition to medicalization and harm reduction approaches. It also includes such factors as state prevention, education and treatment efforts and a wide variety of environmental factors such as socio-demographic/economic characteristics, perceptions of risk, peer reactions to drug use and perceived availability. This session will discuss the utility of such a model as well as provide examples of the research questions being addressed and the policy implications of those questions. Other panel presentations will provide examples of the application of the conceptual model: a taxonomy of selected drug laws, an examination of the impact of marijuana medicalization, and an examination of the impact of communities' comprehensive attempts to reduce drug use among youth. |
Updated 05/20/2006