The New Cannabis Policy Taxonomy on APIS: Making Sense of the Cannabis Policy Universe.

The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism's Alcohol Policy Information System (APIS) is, for the first time, adding legal data pertaining to recreational cannabis use to its current offerings on alcohol policy. Now that Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and the District of Columbia have legalized aspects of recreational cannabis, and more states are considering it, there is an urgency to provide high-quality, multi-dimensional legal data to the public health community. This article introduces the Cannabis Policy Taxonomy recently posted on APIS, and explores its theoretical and empirical contributions to the substance abuse literature and its potential for use in policy research.

Review of State Laws Restricting Local Authority to Impose Alcohol Taxes in the United States.

Objective: Building on the extensive research literature demonstrating that increasing alcohol prices reduces excessive alcohol consumption and related harms, this article presents the results of a 50-state review of local authority to tax alcohol in the United States.

Method: Between 2013 and 2015, legal databases and government websites were reviewed to collect and analyze relevant statutes, ordinances, and case law. Results reflect laws in effect as of January 1, 2015.

Underage Drinking: A Review of Trends and Prevention Strategies.

Underage drinking and its associated problems have profound negative consequences for underage drinkers themselves, their families, their communities, and society as a whole, and contribute to a wide range of costly health and social problems. There is increased risk of negative consequences with heavy episodic or binge drinking. Alcohol is a factor related to approximately 4,300 deaths among underage youths in the U.

Measuring the Strength of State-Level Alcohol Control Policies.

Purpose: We describe a multi-step method of coding the strength of 18 alcohol policies included in the Alcohol Policy Information System for each of the 50 states.

Method: After thoroughly reviewing each policy area, we chose components that were most important in categorizing the strength or restrictiveness of the policy using the following criteria: overall reach, enforceability, and implementation. We determined a unique coding scheme for each policy area.

A new scale of the U.S. alcohol policy environment and its relationship to binge drinking.

Background: Of outcomes related to excessive drinking, binge drinking accounts for approximately half of alcohol-attributable deaths, two thirds of years of potential life lost, and three fourths of economic costs. The extent to which the alcohol policy environment accounts for differences in binge drinking in U.S.

Commercial host (dram shop) liability: current status and trends.

Commercial host liability (CHL, also called dram shop liability) holds alcohol retailers liable for alcohol-attributable harm caused by serving alcohol, illegally, to a patron who is already intoxicated (adult liability) or underage (underage liability). The Community Preventive Services Task Force, based on a systematic research literature review, concluded that CHL is an effective strategy for reducing excessive alcohol consumption. The current article describes the key components of CHL, its grounding in American jurisprudence, its adoption in the 50 states, and changes since 1989, when a similar assessment of these policies was conducted.

Efficacy and the strength of evidence of U.S. alcohol control policies.

Background: Public policy can limit alcohol consumption and its associated harm, but no direct comparison of the relative efficacy of alcohol control policies exists for the U.S.

Purpose: To identify alcohol control policies and develop quantitative ratings of their efficacy and strength of evidence.

State pre-emption, local control, and alcohol retail outlet density regulation.

The substantial health and economic costs of excessive alcohol consumption make its reduction a major public health and economic concern. The Community Preventive Services Task Force, based on a systematic review of the research literature, concluded that restricting alcohol retail outlet density through local land use and zoning regulations is an effective strategy for reducing these costs. Yet the implementation of the Task Force's recommendation is limited by state pre-emption, which determines the extent to which states allow local government to adopt policies and enact legislation.

Joe Camel in a bottle: Diageo, the Smirnoff brand, and the transformation of the youth alcohol market.

I have documented the shift in youth alcoholic beverage preference from beer to distilled spirits between 2001 and 2009. I have assessed the role of distilled spirits industry marketing strategies to promote this shift using the Smirnoff brand marketing campaign as a case example. I conclude with a discussion of the similarities in corporate tactics across consumer products with adverse public health impacts, the importance of studying corporate marketing and public relations practices, and the implications of those practices for public health.

Clients' assimilation of experiences of their therapists.

In this study, we examined how clients internalize their therapists, understanding this phenomenon through the lens of the assimilation model, a theory of psychological change. The assimilation model describes people as comprised of multiple voices, each voice being a representation of interrelated experiences organized around significant people or events. In this study, we interviewed five former psychotherapy clients and asked them to describe how they experienced, and continue to experience, their therapists internally.

Immigrants' continuing bonds with their native culture: assimilation analysis of three interviews.

Three case studies of immigrants to the US from China, Iraq, and Mexico were used to build a theory of acculturation in immigrants by integrating the continuing bonds model, which describes mourning in bereavement with the assimilation model, which describes psychological change in psychotherapy. Participants were interviewed about the loss of their native culture and their life in the US. One participant had not fully assimilated the loss of her native culture, but used her continuing bonds with her culture as a source of solace.

Litigation and alcohol policy: lessons from the US Tobacco Wars.

Aims: This paper explores the role of litigation in preventing alcohol-related harms, identifying lessons from the use of litigation in tobacco control policy in the United States. It analyzes the key components of litigation in an international context, provides a case study of its potential use in addressing the marketing of alcopops to youth and offers recommendations for pursuing litigation strategies in future alcohol policy efforts.

Methods: The paper's analyses are based on both original and secondary legal research.

Submissive voices dominate in depression: assimilation analysis of a helpful session.

Using the assimilation model, we describe a theoretical paradox in which interpersonally assertive parts of the depressed person's personality are dominated and suppressed by parts that are interpersonally submissive and passive. We examine the relevance of this paradox to therapeutic work, focusing on a particularly helpful session (according to the therapist) from the case of Joan, a woman seen for depression in cognitive-behavioral therapy. We consider how the therapist intervened to enhance communication between the interpersonally submissive and dominant parts of Joan and discuss the implications of this process for therapy with such clients.

Flavored alcoholic beverages: an international marketing campaign that targets youth.

Flavored alcoholic beverages (FABs) were first introduced into the alcohol market in the early I980s in the form of wine coolers. FABs are sweet, relatively low alcohol content beverages that are designed for "entry-level" drinkers. The alcohol industry has introduced new products and production methods to expand the category's popularity.

State laws mandating or promoting training programs for alcohol servers and establishment managers: an assessment of statutory and administrative procedures.

We conducted a qualitative analysis of 23 state Responsible Beverage Service (RBS) laws to determine how effective the laws are in mandating or encouraging high-quality RBS programs. As of January, 2001, 12 states at least partially mandate RBS training for alcohol establishments and 11 states offer incentives to encourage participation in RBS training. We collected information regarding state RBS laws from two sources: (1) RBS statutes and associated regulatory provisions, and (2) telephone surveys of Alcoholic Beverage Control agency staff.