The Stable Isotope Ratios of Marijuana. II. Strontium Isotopes Relate to Geographic Origin

Abstract:  Effectively addressing marijuana trade is aided by understanding marijuana geographic sources. We analyzed the ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr of marijuana samples grown in 79 counties across the United States to determine if a primary geologic signal is retained in marijuana, which could therefore be useful for geographic sourcing. The marijuana results were compared with modeled bedrock ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr values based on ⁸⁷Rb decay rates and a generalized geologic map of the U.S.A. A significant correlation was observed between marijuana ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr and modeled bedrock ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr. Although values clustered near the 1:1 relationship, there was a predominance of positive anomalies, perhaps attributable to carbonate bedrock. A small number of negative anomalies were also observed, which were generally associated with granitic bedrocks. These results suggest that strontium isotopes in marijuana record the geographic origins of marijuana, and that refinement of the base strontium map (or strontium isoscape) and improved understanding of other strontium sources would be productive.     

Mental Health Among Incarcerated Women: An Examination of Factors Impacting Depression and PTSD Symptomology

Female offenders experience mental health symptoms at a higher rate than male offenders and females in the community. The current study investigated individual characteristics and experiences that may impact symptoms of depressive disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among a sample of female inmates in a large Southern prison system. Results showed high rates of reported childhood and adult victimization experiences among the sample. Factors such as seeking mental health treatment prior to incarceration significantly impacted the reporting of depressive and PTSD symptoms, as did victimization histories. Findings suggest that women would benefit from screening to identify mental health needs at the onset of incarceration as well as gender responsive needs assessment and programming to address histories of victimization and current mental health symptomatology.     

Motives for suicide--a study of Australian suicide notes

Analysis of a large sample of suicide notes from 262 suicides in Australia found that men less often had escape from pain as a motive for their suicides and more often had love/romantic problems. The suicides of older persons were more often motivated by escape from pain and less often had love/romantic problems.     

Reviving and revising a termination model

Little research has been reported on the termination of public programs since a prolific period in the late 1970s. The rich conceptualizations from the literature remain largely untested due to research difficulties and to a well-articulated position that terminations (unlike other policy process stages) are the result of luck and consequently unproductive for scientific examination. An investigation of the seventy year long death struggle at the National Hansens Disease Center (formerly the National Leprosarium) verifies that patterns do exist and that deLeon's 1978 termination model, slightly updated, provides a good basis for continuing termination research.     

Revising Our Expectations of Local Government

Significant reform of local government in Victoria has led the way nationally and arguably gone beyond the comparative New Zealand and English experiences. Since the reforms were introduced and elected councillors were returned during 1996 and 1997, there has been an adjustment of roles and responsibilities with varying degrees of acceptance. Reviewing the Victorian experience leads to exploration of the potential within local government to define a strong strategic development role based on larger units of economic influence. This will require continuing cultural change within organisations and a wider focus of responsibility for elected members to rise above the 'pot hole' mentality. Regional Australia will be especially poorly served if this challenge is not taken up. This article reviews the progress of compulsory competitive tendering in Victoria by using a case study of the experience in Ballarat.     

Improving data utilization: the case-wise alternative

Both research and practical experience suggest that alternative forms of data analysis and presentation may affect their use in the policy arena. The variable-wise alternative produces estimates of population parameters through conventional statistical techniques. The case-wise alternative defines and identifies qualitatively distinct types of cases through techniques of numerical taxonomy. In the experiment reported here, variable-wise and case-wise presentations of Census data on poverty were used to compare the effects of the alternatives on policy makers in a priority-setting task. The results show that the case-wise alternative can improve utilization, assimilation, recall, and recognition of the data. Under the circumstances examined here, the case-wise alternative is a practical means of increasing the return on the public's investment in data resources to improve policy decisions.     

Administrative Review in a System of Conflicting Values

An issue of continuing debate in the legal and social science literature is how best to control and validate the exercise of essentially legislative powers by administrative agencies. This study examines one mechanism of control, administrative de novo review of agency decisionmaking. It explores how this device functions in immigration bail administration, a system where there is a broad and vague delegation of detention and bail powers to government oficials in an area of law where there is no set of preferences as to how conflicting policy claims are to be weighed in decisionmaking. The study shows a system in turmoil. The de novo review body–the immigration court-frequently and substantially modifies the Immigration Service's initial bail decisions. Because there is no agreement on the norms to guide decisionmaking, these changes have little effect on ongoing agency activity and policies. Pronounced interagency conflict and extreme decisional disparity persist given limited institutional and political arrangements for dealing with this dissensus. The study explores in detail the institutional cultures and conflicting legal and social values that shape the practice and patterns of de novo review in this field of law and discusses the implications of such conflict for the full functioning of this external review device.     

Embryonic discourse: abortion, stem cells and cloning

This Article interprets the debate about abortion and the debate about embryonic research and therapeutic cloning as aspects of a larger history of ideas. The Article suggests that embryos increasingly stand for different truths in discourse about abortion on the one-hand and about embryonic stem cell research and therapeutic cloning on the other. More specifically, the Article suggests that the contemporary debate about the meaning of the embryo in the context both of abortion and of embryonic research bespeaks a widespread transformation in Western, and especially American, society during the last three or four decades. At base, that transformation involves displacement of an understanding of personhood, particularly in domestic settings that depended on the submersion of individualism with an understanding of personhood that values autonomous individuality and that envisions community as the consequence of individuals' distinct choices rather than as a pre-existing, hierarchically structured whole.     

A simple DNA extraction method for marijuana samples used in amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis

As a first step in developing a molecular method for the individualization of marijuana samples, we evaluated a plant DNA extraction kit. The QIAGEN plant DNeasy method uses a spin column format for recovery of DNA and is effective for obtaining high molecular weight DNA from leaf, flower (bud), and seed samples of marijuana. The average DNA yield was 125-500 ng per 100 milligrams of fresh plant tissue. The recovered DNA was of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) quality as measured by the ability to generate reproducible amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) profiles. AFLP is a technique used to create a DNA profile for plant varieties and is being applied to marijuana samples by the authors to link growers and distributors of clonal material. The QIAGEN plant DNeasy method was simple, efficient, and reproducible for processing small quantities of marijuana into DNA.