Description
In approximately 500 words, describe among other things: • your area of interest (e.g. advanced clinical practice, administration, education, etc.); • potential clinical problem that you plan to focus on as your identified topic in the nursing program; • why you are interested in this clinical problem; • why it is relevant for the current society; • why it potentially warrants evidenced-based practice change; and • how it is relevant to the role of the BSN-prepared nurse and the implementation of evidence-based practice.
A STUDY INTO THE IMPACT OF INTERNET SOCIAL NETWORKING ON HONG KONG YOUTH’S CANNABIS USE
CHAPTER ONE
OPENING
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank my supervisor, Dr. Kalwan KWAN Ming-tak, for his continuous support and guidance throughout the research. Albeit, I would like to acknowledge the individuals, such as Dr. CHAN Chi-hung, Joe, the President of the Asian Association for Addiction Professionals(AAAP), the Asian Clinical Consultant and Course Director of the Canadian Council of Professional Certification(CCPC Global) Addiction Program, and the Course Director of the Canadian Lord God’s Seminary, who participated, offered professional advice about drug addiction and rehabilitation, engaged with the study and enabled this research to be possible and meaningful. (93)
Abstract
Objective
This research aimed to sniff the impact of internet social networking such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram on how the youth’s behavior on Cannabis use in the contemporary situation. We have examined certain numbers of articles, journals and books with related to this topic. Their results are different from various perspectives. On the other hand, we had interviewed and examined eleven young drug abusers with their drug taking experiences from ___ to ___ years so that facts and understanding can be established about their drug addiction and related activities with reference onto the possible connection and influences with social network interactions.
Methodology
To explore and study the research statement, we utilized the qualitative approach through interviewing various groups of related drug addicts in the hope of finding out the truth case. With the adoption of semi-structured interview technique, we have conducted and structured using a researcher-made topics guide and readily available advertising materials on various chosen categories of people and can ascertain the causes of drug attempt as well as addiction. The aim of the framework of the interview is to have groundbreaking effect simply through asking some basic personal background, followed by open-ended questions about what the participants know about cannabis. We also understand that internet social media is a means which must be cooperated with other factors and elements to influence people to take a drug such as Cannabis. Lifestyle depicted in social media by celebrities has influence on majority of the youths into trying the kind of lifestyle which include drugs and substance abuse.
Whilst considering the use of qualitative approach, one must be the concern of what we want. The adoption of a quantitative way of data collection could increase the chance of confining the elaboration of the participants of the research. That means the generalized results will be received and it is not the answer we would like to see. For example, quantitative research is purposing the quantification of the data. We may simply measure the views and responses of those samples without an in-depth examination of what the causes are. In addition, the sample population should be large enough to give a clear picture on certain research topics. This could have created hurdles to the selection of suitable targets for interview. In particular, some special targets such as drug addicts. They will have different backgrounds to cause them addict to drugs. People become addicted to drugs through various reasons including; boredom, depression, curiosity, the need for weight loss, having stress, low self-esteem, enhanced experiences, peer pressure, social imperative to experience and experiment while still young, and family history of drug addiction causing genetically predisposition. Other benefits of adopting a quantitative way of data collection are; finding evidence in support or contradiction our hypothesis; this method gives an opportunity to obtain a higher sample size for an accurate general conclusion; collection of information is faster through quantitative research and much more other advantages. Taking into the social causes to drug addiction issue, it would be more suitable to adopt the qualitative means. Through qualitative approach, we may find more about the nature of certain drug related issues and phenomenon, either personal or social, from in-depth enquiry by means of the semi-structured interview.
Likewise, the adoption of qualitative approach has certain advantages to our research. Some of the advantages of qualitative research are; qualitative approach enhances detailed evaluation of subject materials. More focus in a qualitative research is on the subtleties found in the data collected and less focus on the data metrics; a qualitative approach can adapt the quality of data obtained, and can immediately shift in obtaining information in an alternative direction; a qualitative approach embraces gut instinct as it is based on human experiences and observations made; data gathered through a qualitative approach can be predicted based on the respondents or source of data; an experienced researcher is capable of following interesting information therefore enhancing database of the collected information; complex data can be used to generate in-depth and accurate conclusions benefiting everyone; a qualitative research enables sourcing of underneath rational thoughts and superficial responses in obtaining emotional responses from individuals; qualitative approach enhances authenticity by encouraging respondents to express themselves creatively; qualitative approach uses smaller sample sizes, thus saving on time and costs and gives faster results and many more other advantages.
Firstly, as our paper aims to find out more about the Cannabis taker’s personal information, in particular the inducement by drug in his or her life, some interview techniques are required to break the ice in order to have more follow up questions about what the participants know about cannabis, and whether they heard of “420”. These involve certain closed information with relation to their friends, relatives or even they themselves. The disclosure of such information may involve certain personal privacy and in-depth enquiry about drug taking and Internet surfing habit to be followed by their opinions about how Internet social networking platforms affect their perception and behaviors of taking cannabis. Semi-structured interview may serve this purpose better. In addition, there may be a continued probing of interviewee’s connection with other people who may not agree to the exposure of their personal information.
Secondly, the qualitative interview may help building a trust between the interviewer and interviewee. The prolonged in-depth interview may allow the interviewer to explain in detail about what the study wants. For example, the interviewer may explain the purposes of the study through different questions and explanations so that the interviewees would be more comfortable to speak out their concerns and something hidden liked experiences with the drug addiction. The interviewees may also feel like talking with friends whereas the interviewer can spend more time to observe the reactions of each interviewee during the interview. This will increase the accuracy of the information received.
On occasions, flexibility can be made by interviewer to adjust the question for fitting the environment and nature of interviewee for more accurate and needed information. For example, the response of certain young drug addicts may change when the legalization of Cannabis happened in Canada. An open-minded attitude may arise whenever the social situation had changed liked the decriminalization of certain drugs had been widely accepted by society with majority of people had accepted this a new trend with less interference by parents. On the other hand, the sampling can be more flexible to suit the needs of research if qualitative approach is chosen. It is obviously useful whenever the social situation has changed rapidly liked the recent legalization of cannabis use in Canada which affected the people’s belief in taking it. Drug addicts and their friends will tend to speak out the cannabis use widely without any hesitation as they believed that no legal responsibility will be shouldered under the current situation. Likewise, the interviewer may ask more sensitive and leading questions to find out what causes their drug addiction in related social groups.
Theoretical Framework & Foundations
In the examination of the dissertation statement, we must be able to adopt some theoretical foundations through which we can understand the phenomenon from which to derive. This section will contain a collection of concepts of Cannabis intake by youngsters having common relationships to help in determining items to be measured and studying statistical relationships. There are virtually series of conceptual framework we shall use to examine why internet social media is able to affect youngsters in taking Cannabis. Theories such as the ‘Rational Choice Theory’, Besides, we shall look into articles, journals and research studies for comparing and contrasting different authors’ views in order to find out if the statement should be probed. Through the reviews, we are able to establish or criticize other studies on similar topics.
Furthermore, our study will review the statement from various aspects such as criminological, psychological and sociological perspectives. For example, we shall examine it through reviewing and comparing a study by a psychologist Stanton Peele, in one of his research papers namely “Discovery for Addiction”. He had the idea that addiction happened with a wide range of experiences, natural recovery and harm reduction approach all related to addiction. Such paper had mentioned valuable findings on ‘Natural Recovery’ which highlighted the addiction is not a consequence of taking drugs and drinking. Rather, it arises from the way in which these and other compelling activities fit into people’s lives and meanings. He has emphasized more onto the psychological reasoning of the addiction rather than drug side of a chemical elicited origin. Therefore, what constituted to addiction will be the psychological matters instead of physical inducement such as the report on poisoning by drug itself. As such, people who wants to rehabilitate depends on their minds, not medication. It is vital that the cause of addiction would be not drugs but one’s temperament on drug itself.
Stanton started criticizing the standard notions of addiction through making reference with his experiential and environmental approaches. They then resulted to define addictions as negative patterns of behavior and it was caused by over-attachment people form to experiences created through a wide range of involvements. He also argues that most people went through addiction to a certain degree of at least for periods of time during their lives. He opined addiction as “problems of life” as most of the people had overcome before. When we view addiction from sociological perspective, it turns the contemporary way to view addiction as more scientific instead of moralistic. Any satisfactory theory must attempt to account for the fact that the repeated administration of opiates sometimes is followed by addition and sometimes is not. The psychologist opined that addiction is generated in the process of using the drug consciously to alleviate withdrawal distress. From the sociological perspective, drug addiction may also be influenced by peers and families. Therefore, the adoption of “Differential Association Theory” under the criminological use of Cannabis by youth, interacting with the respondents, the research will be able to obtain data in relation to values, techniques, attitudes and motives of youths engaging in intake of Cannabis. The theory will guide this research into discovering how youngsters become Cannabis users with little focus on what the effects of such choices on the youngsters. Differential association theory forecasts a common tendency in choosing a criminal path as opposed to a law-abiding path in instances when the definition of law-breaking surpasses the definition of law-abiding.
From criminological perspective, various theories may also explain the reasons of causing drug addiction and Cannabis use in our research study. Therefore, we have examined several theories such as the peer influences on “Social Learning Theory” and “Differential Association Theory”, “Strain Theory”, “Rational Choice Theory” and “Sub-culture Theory”.
Basically, drugs must involve people of different kinds. For the Cannabis use, it is mostly the concern about youngsters or adolescences as they are the common takers. The learning theory is typically relating to them. The drug addiction and Cannabis use had been treated as illegal acts which they had been mostly learning from peers. Besides, the behavior of youngsters had mostly been affected or even influenced by some other social elements such as family, close friends and most commonly various means of social media. In the learning process, there are different elements which may affect the result such as the social media will provide certain information, whether correct or incorrect will jeopardize the outcome behavior of certain people. Drug addiction, such as Cannabis taking is a typical example. If the social media spread information about the legalization of Cannabis together with another information on less chance of addictive which will provoke non-takers to try due to human desire. Through interviews with different addicts we are able to understand better if internet social media will affect the youths’ Cannabis use. Certain media exposure has been shown to be having significant link to Cannabis use by youths. From the World Health Organization, Cannabis is the most extensively produced illegal drug and also widely trafficked. Across the world, 50% of all seizure is Cannabis confiscations. Cannabis is closely tied to youngster culture and the age consuming the drug is lower as compared to initiation age of consumers of other drugs.
Likewise, we shall explore through various conceptual frameworks to know more about the possible inducement for youths to take Cannabis. Different schools of thought will base on different presumptions and belief about the possible outcome derived from various theories. For example, the “Differential Association Theory” will consider youths to have peer influence to commit crimes and act of deviances. The learning of criminal behavior will result to the outcome of different possible crime commitments. However, the rational choice school of thought believe that people should be held responsible to each commitment since they have to choices to do or not to do taking into account of the opportunity costs. According to the rational choice theory, we can make an assumption that youths choose to use Cannabis as a result of the choice they make. Therefore, we may discover that more than one or two criminological theories being examined with their correlation with drug using activity. It is thus worth to study from the criminological perspective.
Results
(To be expanded by Patrick)
Introduction
Recently, in an article issued by the Washington University School of Medicine, in USA, stated that young people had been particularly responsive to the influences from social media. It usually resulted to the establishment of substance use patterns. For example, the pro-Cannabis content reaching young people on certain important social media liked Facebook. In an article published by the US National Library of Medicine National Institutes of Health in July 2018 mentioning about Marijuana promotions on social media (Moreno MA, Gower AD, Jenkins MC, Kerr B, Gritton J. Marijuana promotions on social media: adolescents’ views on prevention strategies. Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy. 2018;13(1):23. Published 2018 Jul 2. doi:10.1186/s13011-018-0152-7) had once said that “Youth exposure to positive marijuana messages increases their risk of use.” Therefore, social media is one of the greatest causes to have impact on youths on Cannabis use.
It is very common for the youngsters to experience on drugs, cigarette and alcoholic items nowadays especially in Western countries. The social networking has been offering a platform to know those items easily which are very likely to provide opportunities for youngsters to expose on drugs. Teenagers are vulnerably affected by social media as they mostly obtain information from there. Most of the social media provided environments for the youngsters to imitate their idols who may have the habits on common drugs such as Cannabis. Those international public figures like Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber are typical examples. Their behaviors will bring a wrong message to followers who are mostly youngsters believed that illicit or prescription drug taking are appropriate. This situation happens the same in their peer and pressure groups. Most of the time, youngsters are attracted by the lifestyle they see on social media from celebrities and thus tricked into trying things out in imitation of such lifestyle. It ranges from type of clothes, drugs and substance abuse among others. What social media presents to such youngsters is a good life, full of happiness and joy thus attracting large numbers of youngsters who are hoping to find same kind of lifestyle after using such drugs.
The National Centre on Addicts and Substance Abuse of Columbia University had once examined the correlation between drugs and social media which discovered that the teenagers habitually used social media had higher chances of using drugs than those who were nonusers. Social media is said to be the catalyst for many mental health problems which is able to cause to substance abuse. It creates the issue of social comparison in a world where everything is curated. It is particularly vital to cause problem to teenagers who are more easily get to depressive perceptions on social comparison. Therefore, the use of social media is mostly linked with the mental health issues which involving the depression, for an instance among young people. The teenagers had mostly used social media as means of communication and it is a universal nowadays with around 92% of adolescent users checked their networking sites more than once a day. It is very common to have accounts in the internet social media such as Facebook and Instagram. They are mostly and frequently used by the adolescences with ranking at the top ten as reported by some international research journals and articles.
Likewise, social media not only put pressure to youngsters for using drugs, it provides an online platform for dealers to sell and promote drugs. The dark web is one of the platform where drug dealers have successfully managed to sell drugs to youngsters without intervention from the government and security officers. It is particularly easy to disguise themselves in the belief that they cannot be found by law enforcement agencies. The dealers may use various means to attract youths about the good side of Cannabis and how to deal under no obligation of against the law. It is one of the reasons to aggregate people to try drugs from online platforms which social media had served this basic function. However, what causes people to increase the drug addiction remains the question and this research is going to find this rationale behind. (The influence of Social Media on Teen Drug Use (by Jena Hilliard/ 16 July 2019, Addiction Centre) (https://www.addictioncenter.com/community/social-media-teen-drug-use/))
On the other hand, Registry of Drug Abuse(CRDA) reports in the past ten years reviewed that the age of Cannabis abusers, in particular those under 21, has increased consistently since 2013. Furthermore, the amount of Cannabis seizure rose sharply in the past two years from _____ to _____ representing an increase of ____ %. On the other hand, the recent press release by the Chairman of Action Committee Against Narcotics(ACAN) had reiterated the sever youth drug problem with noticeable rise of cannabis abuser, particularly the youths aged under 21. It is a clear indication that the Cannabis drug issue mostly related to youths or adolescences who are common social media users. As such, there should be a close connection between social media and Cannabis use by youths.
To further understanding the rationale behind this problem, it is inquisitive to look into the interest group of people through series of interview to obtain data with a view to analyze the related phenomenon through examining various theoretical foundation, such as the ‘Differential Association Theory’, some social learning theories. In fact, the subject is not solely relating to individual behavior, it is also socially connected from different perspectives such as influences from family, peers, individuals and social media through wide range of network such as the internet.
There is a crucial need to find out the causes which may require to draw public attention. Cannabis is a popular drug for the last fifty years around the world. The social impact on youngsters had been far beyond of its drug content addiction effect. Its medical related function also affected people’s decision on legalizing it instead. The economic activity generated from this drug also produced a change in fashion trend which covered up the harmfulness of the gateway functions. More young followers had shared their Cannabis experiences without due consideration of its drug addiction consequences and illegal nature in most of the places in the world. They even ignored the true facts that Cannabis is virtually an addictive drug which will cause serious harm to mental health together with possible rise of risks of respiratory problems and cardiovascular diseases. Therefore, this research topic had been confirmed. (To be refined by Patrick)
CHAPTER TWO
METHODOLOGY
Qualitative Approach
To better understand the influence of Internet social networking on youth’s habit of cannabis use, a qualitative approach characterized by semi-structured one to one interviews with targeted groups was taken in the current research with a view to unveiling descriptively the perceptions towards cannabis use and the sociological implications brought about Internet social media on cannabis consumption. The reason for taking a qualitative approach is that the influences brought about by Internet social networking on cannabis users can be broad, as different people have different perceptions and preferences towards the Internet platforms encountered in their own lives, which is difficult to quantify. Besides, a quantitative way of data collection could limit the elaboration of the participants of the research. (could be expanded through comparing the qualitative with quantitative approach…by Watson) A dialogic environment can instead allow more free flow and contribution of opinions, recount of experience and elicitation of productive conversation, which this research intends to look for in order to understand more about the social phenomena and the correlation between the drug habit and the Internet.
Similar approach has been taken by overseas researchers in understanding cannabis users’ perceptions and habit. In a study by Dawson (2004) about reviewing the communications and preventive measures of British government with heavy and frequent cannabis users, individual interviews, paired interviews and group discussions were conducted to explore the targeted groups’ perceived benefits and drawbacks of cannabis use, impact of cannabis use on their lives, level of interest in information about cannabis use, as well as the impact of harm reduction messages on their behaviors. The interviews and group discussions were categorized by potential heavy users of cannabis (with 12 respondents), current heavy / frequent users of cannabis (with 18 respondents), ex-heavy users of cannabis (with 6 respondents), long term heavy / frequent users of cannabis (with 4 respondents), specified in terms of age, social class and location. terms of age, social class and location. The interviews and discussions were unstructured, yet the researchers conducted them with a topic and discussion guide which involved a number of topic-oriented questions and framework of discussion.
Similarly, a qualitative approach was adopted by Menghrajani, Klaue, Dubois-Arber and Michaud (2004) to study Swiss adolescents’ and adults’ perceptions on cannabis use. In the research, focus group discussions were conducted with four types of stakeholders, namely younger adolescents (13 respondents of 13-15 years old), older adolescents (19 respondents of 16-19 years old), parents of teenagers (8 respondents) and professionals working with young people (13 respondents) with a view to exploring their attitudes and beliefs over cannabis use and relevant education. To allow for large representation of people of various backgrounds and obtain wider array of opinions, participants were selected via different channels irrespective of their drug consumption status, such as schools, clinics, healthcare services, etc. Four 90-minute tape-recorded discussion sessions were held with the four target groups with structured questions while spontaneous interactions were allowed. The transcripts were then studied by the authors to reach a consensus on the most prevalent attitudes and beliefs in the group discussions.
Semi-structured Interview
In terms of format of the current qualitative study, individual semi-structured interviews in Chinese each lasting for 30 to 45 minutes were conducted with a total of 9 current / previous cannabis users, to on the one hand follow a framework of questions in order to obtain the categories of information answering the research question without losing focus in the interviews and on the other hand, to allow flexibility for facilitating productive conversation and building up rapport for eliciting the respondents’ revelation of their habit of using cannabis and perception of the drug. The interview framework mainly covers the below categories of questions:
- Demographic information (including age, education and employment);
- Knowledge and perception of cannabis;
- Habit of taking cannabis;
- Habit of using Internet social media; and
- Perception of Internet social media and cannabis consumption, and their correlation
The objective of the framework of the interview is to break the ice by first asking some basic personal background, followed by open-ended questions about what the participants know about cannabis, and whether they heard of “420” (cannabis culture slang). Then, the focus shifts to probing into their drug taking and Internet surfing habit, followed by their opinions about how Internet social networking platforms affect their perception and behaviors of taking cannabis. Interviewers were briefed to conduct the interviews in accordance with the above framework and at the same time and equally important, is to exercise flexibility in adjusting the questions respecting the flow of conversation so that rapport could be established with the interviewees and power relationship between the interviewers and the interviewees who appear to be recounting the dark side of their personal lives and less superior in the interview could be minimized. A well maintained interview rapport could also minimize the risk that the interviewees covered up their stories and enhance a more honest sharing. The same principle applies to the choice of interview environment with date, time and location chosen taken into the respondents’ interest into account to ensure voluntariness, anonymity and confidentiality.
Sampling
As the research is to explore the perception of the cannabis users, one of the major targeted groups of respondents is the cannabis users. Technically, it is rather difficult for ordinary researchers to locate drug users, not to mention having a reasonable sampling size, without the assistance of certain non-governmental organizations (NGOs) since cannabis is considered a dangerous drug in Hong Kong prohibited under the Dangerous Drugs Ordinance (Cap. 134) and cannabis users have to bear the risk revealing their drug taking experience, which might incriminate themselves. Other drug taking youth will be hiding out of shame and fear of public opinion on their lifestyle. Some are forced to get into hiding from their friends, families and peers.
To this end, one of the researchers in the study who is a social worker responsible for the Youth Outreaching team and Youth Night Drifting team in Sai Kung and Wong Tai Sin district under the Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (HKFYG)[1], managed to identify 9 current or previous cannabis users (8 males and 1 female) aged between 20 and 29 who were the service receivers of the organization. These participants came from various socio-economical background as Sai Kung and Wong Tai Sin district are geographically dominated by both middle class and grass root households and with education ranging from primary to tertiary. 3 of them were students, 1 was unemployed and 5 were employed. As for the age range, it was intended to target youths who already reached the age of 18 in order to avoid the consent issue arising from notifying the guardians and ensure the confidentiality of the interviewees. Their experience of using cannabis ranged from 2 to 15 years. Except one respondent who was ex-user of cannabis and three were under rehabilitation, the rest were either occasional users or habitual user. Apart from cannabis, three of the respondents had experiences of using other dangerous drugs including cocaine and “ICE”.
Since it is intrinsically difficult to identify participants for the research, to leverage the limitation arising from the sampling size and explore the perception of cannabis use and influences of the Internet social networking platforms from other closely knitted angles, i.e. professionals from youth service and drug addiction counselling, individual interviews were conducted with two social workers and an addiction counsellor. Regarding the social workers, one has three years of experience and is working for the late night youth services including providing counselling service during youth’s drug treatment and rehabilitation, while another one has ten years of experience handling high-risk youth and related drug treatment campaign. With their ample experience dealing with youths with drug issues, they could augment the contributions on the youths’ perception on cannabis through their daily close contact and observation with the youths. As for the drug addiction counsellor, he is the President of the Asian Association for Addiction Professionals, the Asian Clinical Consultant and course director of the Canadian Council of Professional Certification (CCPC Global) Addiction Program and the course director of the Canadian Lord God’s Seminary. He has extensive clinical experience in treating addiction and is committed to relevant research. He also trains addiction counsellors. He could provide his clinical observations of why cannabis users pick up the habit and the influencing factors. The interviews were tailor-made for the above respondents with the aim to tap in their observations on cannabis youth users in Hong Kong and the impact of Internet social platforms on the drug use through their expert dealings with the youths and drug addicts.
Ethics
In the interviews, respondents were asked to elicit their cannabis using habit and experience including how they obtained the drug. Since cannabis is prohibited under the laws of Hong Kong, and possession and trafficking of the drug amount to criminal offence, respondents had to bear the risk of self-incrimination unveiling their experiences. This research upholds the convention of confidentiality of the respondents and information they provide as a means of protecting their privacy with an aim of building trust. Confidentiality of the respondents is also aimed at maintaining the researches’ ethical standards and integrity. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to preserve the confidentiality of the interviews and the interviewees, and ensure consent is given freely and voluntarily, and with prior information provided to the respondents. The respondents were not given any honoraria for the research.
Before start of the interview, respondents were fully informed of all the aspects of the research including the nature and objectives of the study, methodology adopted in collecting the data, the interviewers’ background, coverage of the questions and especially the sensitive content of cannabis using experiences which would affect their willingness to participate, as well as freedom to withdraw from the interview any time. Respondents were reassured that the personal information collected would be kept strictly confidential and only used or shared for the purpose of academic research by relevant researchers until 2022 when the data would all be destroyed. They were informed of how they could gain access to the data collected with contact of the interviewers provided. They were then asked to sign on the written consent forms. Interviewers were briefed not to act superior or judgmental during the interviews and should be responsive and listening, so as to create a harmonious environment to facilitate frank and truthful sharing by the interviewees. All the digital interview records were safely kept by one of the designated researchers in an encrypted thumb drive, while all the hardcopies of the transcripts and consent forms were safekept by the same designated researcher in his locked cabinet restricted to his own access only.
Qualitative Data Analysis
All the interviews were audio-recorded, followed by transcription in both Chinese and English to allow for subsequent coding and analysis, as well as access by both local and overseas researchers in the future.
CHAPTER THREE
LITERATURE REVIEW
Legalization of cannabis has been a highly controversial issue globally recently. Uruguay is the first country of cannabis legalization, while Canada has been completely legalized of cannabis, whatever is recreation used and medical used at the end of 2018. Number of states in America have been legalization in medical and recreational used, but quite vary from different states. Some countries launched a friendly policy towards cannabis, they have limited law enforcement, while allowing the cannabis trading in the market, and in the form of licensed establishments for cannabis, including Netherlands. In Asia, cannabis with medical use started for discussion in National Council, and promote the medical used of cannabis legalized in countries such as Japan, Singapore and Thailand etc. Under this circumstance about legalization of cannabis, there is a lot of cannabis related information in the internet, at the same time, it may attract adolescent for taking cannabis in Hong Kong.
Cannabis is still illegal in Hong Kong, and there are controversies in various areas, such as promoting cannabis as a healthy product with the health impact and medical function, a gateway drug, cause of cannabis addiction and the consequence of using cannabis etc. Hong Kong’s laws on drugs such as Cannabis are not as liberal as compare to countries such as the US and Europe with a conservative public assertiveness on drug abuse. Once, Hong Kong was a destination between China and other countries of the world for trafficking drugs. There is zero tolerance in Hong Kong towards illicit drugs. Using a small amount of drug may amount to arrest, fine and/or deportation for non-citizens caught in Hong Kong.
This literature reviews first briefly including theories and research studies to be reviewed has been summarized, compared, contrasted as well as integrated. According to different literature, statistics and research reports, the theoretical base of this research includes the basic information of cannabis itself, in term of different form of cannabis, the cannabinoids constituent in cannabis, the social consequence of using cannabis. Then the cannabis users in Hong Kong nowadays are discussion, by reviewing and evaluating on the results of Central Registry of Drug Abuse (CRDA) in Narcotics Division, Security Bureau. Moreover, the reason of taking cannabis are discussion afterward, it will discuss in different criminological theories on reason why the adolescent taking cannabis. Finally, the influence of social media in youth taking cannabis behaviors is addressed.
Basic information of cannabis
Cannabis, another term named Marijuana, is a natural plant, first recorded in China for medical book. It has more than thousands of species, but it commonly accepted in two major form of species, including the Indica and Sativa. Indica and Sativa are frequently are discuss in various research. Throughout the cannabis-related websites, Sativa develops tall and thin, with narrow, long and narrowly serrated leaves, in comparison of Indica, it is morphologically characterized by its short and bushy plant, with wide, short and deeply serrated leaves which is generally known for its ‘night-time’ use, producing sedative effects, relaxation and relief from stress. If we discussed for the ‘daytime’ type, Sativa would be highly discussed, since it is used for inducing cerebral high, with uplifting, anti-depression, euphoric effects. Among the above cannabis species in Hong Kong, not much localized research is discussed and there is limited information about the component of cannabis in drug seizure. According to World Health Organization, Cannabis is the most extensively produced illegal drug and also widely trafficked. Across the world, 50% of all seizure is Cannabis confiscations. Cannabis is closely tied to youngster culture and the age consuming the drug is lower as compared to initiation age of consumers of other drugs.
When understanding cannabis, the cannabinoids constituent in cannabis should be discussed. Since the most controversial area is related to the constituent of cannabis, the Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD) are formed spontaneously. The former, CBD, is the precursor of THC, while the latter, cannabinol, is the breakdown product of THC. The cannabis with high concentration of THC, with the absent of CBT, this cannabis would easily make someone getting high, it contains a lot of psychoactive properties. In the contrast, cannabinoids make someone getting stable, it is used for some medical used in foreign countries. By reviewing the effect of these two constituents of cannabis, it quite varies to each other. The effect of THC under the researches finding on human and animals includes the impairment of basic learning tasks and short-term memory, worsened motor coordination such as driving hypothermia, better appetite, catalepsy, analgesic and antiemetic effects. While CBD exerts no effects on psychotic symptoms, intoxication, sedation and mood. Meanwhile, CBD is found to have anxiolytic properties. Hence, this suggests that administration of CBD alone exert little symptomatic impact on non-anxious healthy individuals. This is simply discussed in the function of medical use in cannabis.
The social consequence of cannabis is discussed in the formed of adverse effects of cannabis in short terms use and long terms use during adolescence and young adulthood.
According to the articles of New England Journal of Medicine written by Volkow, Baler, Compton and Weiss (2014), the regular use of marijuana during adolescence was undergo a study on the adverse effects of short-term use and long-term or heavy use of marijuana, the result concluded that the deterioration of the short-term memory make difficult to learn and retrieve information. The motor coordination is impaired which shows significantly in driving skills and the risk of driving injuries are increased. The increasing the risk of sexual behaviors that facilitate the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases by altering the marijuana users’ judgement. It also includes the paranoia and psychosis are found if marijuana is used in high doses.
The long-term usages of marijuana are much more concerned. Addiction are always found in adolescent and young adulthood, around 25-50% marijuana users would develop as a daily user. The long term of using marijuana would alter the brain development and brain damage, the cognitive impairment among the high dose users during adolescents shows the correlation. As the same time, bad academic results may cause the school dropout. The finding shows the users commonly have bad life satisfaction and achievement. The physical health of chronic bronchitis and increasing the risk of chronic psychosis disorders (including schizophrenia) in persons with a predisposition to such disorders.
The above basic information of cannabis is concluded by various convincing sources, such as New England Journal of Medicine and American Journal of Psychiatry etc. which were excluded if they show significant bias, such as pro-cannabis websites. This literature shows out the consequence for a long term used of cannabis having the psychotropic effect, brain damage, addiction with a gateway drug and negative social impacts of cannabis used are well-proven.
Cannabis situation in Hong Kong
There is limited information about cannabis found in the conventional source, such as localize based research and journal. For studying cannabis in Hong Kong, the local news and government published information are used in this chapter. According to the Statistics of Hong Kong Police Force, the serious of drug offence was decreasing since 2015, a total of 1,981 case were arrested from 2015 sharply reduced to just 740 in 2019, and this serious offence of drug trafficking cases not limited to cannabis, but also including ketamine, Ice and heroin etc. However, there is an interesting statistic finding from HKPF, a major drug seizure of cannabis found in 2017 is 1,376 kg which is more than 16 times of drug seizure found in 2013. Moreover, a local news reported that Hong Kong police arrested the largest ever marijuana drug case and seized 580 kg and 100 million of marijuana. The Police claimed that the overall number of drug users dropped last year, the number of people who used cannabis increased. The number of people under the age of 21 using drug increased by 48% from the previous year. The number of young people and students involved in drug crimes also increased from last year. This concluded that young people involving in cannabis related crime and the higher consumption of cannabis was resulted recently.
In the midst of a general decrease in the overall number of drug-taking, the number of drug users in Hong Kong is increasing with fifty percent surge being youngsters under the age of 21. The youngsters think using cannabis is not harmful from oversees legislation on the drug. The Hong Kong Narcotics Commissioner associated the rise in the number of marijuana consumption to be attributed to the legal status of the drug in abroad. Different forms of products containing cannabis are freely sold in in local shops and online stores thus creating a misconception to youngsters that the drug is not harmful when consumed. Some of the effects of the drug include but not limited to addiction, IQ loss, hallucination, depression, anxiety among others. Most cases of Marijuana seizure were at the Hong Kong International Airport. Most cannabis were airmailed from North America from where it is legal to use the drug for recreational purposes. By 2019, Hong Kong reported the number of drug users to be at 5,614. The number stood chances of increasing as it is difficult to detect users of cannabis as it would be in detecting Heroin consumers. In Hong Kong, Marijuana is classified as a dangerous drug that when caught in possession of would amount to a penalty of seven years in prison and a fine of approximately US$ 128,000 on the highest side.
Comparing with Central Registry of Drug Abuse reported by Narcotics Division, Security Bureau, the newly report person from the aged under 21, taking cannabis is the most common type of drugs abused in 2019, the second and third common type of drugs abused are cocaine and methylamphetamine(Ice). There is rising trend from the statistic in 2017 to 2019. It shows that cannabis is the most popular drug using among the adolescents and young adulthood. Taking the result of newly reported drug abusers with aged under 21 by reason for cannabis current drug use, the first three common reasons are peer influence, relief of boredom/depression/stress and seeking sensory satisfaction. While the age 21 or above, the popular reason is relief the negative emotion. Since a voluntary basis for the individual drug abuser by providing the information to the CRDA is used, so that those finding are relatively accountable for analysis.
However, throughout the statistics of Central Registry of Drug Abuse, it is hard to collect the information about which kind of cannabis species are taking and drug seized in Hong Kong. The above information has two implications on understand the current situation of using cannabis in Hong Kong. The adolescents and young adulthood treat cannabis is a most popular drugs recently and they used cannabis for relaxation and cannabis taking behaviours are usually spread by peer influence. These implications will be further discussed in the criminological theories on the spreading of cannabis taking behaviours.
Cannabis in social media
Social media is a form of electronic communication platform through the users create the connection in internet, the form of application platform including and not limited to the website, discussion forum, YouTube and social interaction platform, such as Facebook and Instagram etc. Some of the cannabis information are highly spread through this kind of social media, and this will be discussed how the effect on social media affecting the adolescents on taking cannabis.
Internet make us to connect the world and people can easily receive different knowledge through the website, so that people wherever you are, the knowledge could be collected by the cell phone or notebook. The search energy in the internet can help people drawing out the needed information. For an instance, searching for cannabis. A plenty of cannabis related information could be found through google search engine. Cannabis related website is widely browsed in the internet. Definitely, Wikipedia is the free encyclopedia, people can get cannabis related knowledge in Wikipedia, and it is always listed on the top of the search list and Wikipedia in the website could be edited by everyone, so that the information of different views on cannabis would be found. Wikipedia is a similar concept about the information shown in website. Website related to the government organization such as Hong Kong Narcotic Division of Security Bureau could be searched. The cannabis related information including the facts of the cannabis, cannabis related law, the cannabis effect and the consequence of taking cannabis are always included in the kind of formal and trustworthy website.
Similarly, the website of National Institute of Drug Abuse in US provides a scientific and evidence based on the causes and consequences of cannabis use and addiction, which aim for improving the public health in society. These websites always treat cannabis as illegal drugs and harm for health, by providing the scientific evidence about cannabis to the public. In some extend, this type of cannabis related information is always theoretical and trustworthy. However, different views of cannabis could be easily found in Internet. For an instance, an article named as “20 Health benefits of cannabis that everyone should know” on the website of Medical Cannabis Network, this article shows how cannabis is beneficial to human body, and these 20 health benefits have been proved in some research finding. Since the medical used of cannabis are widely applied in foreign country, people commonly find a lot of medical used related information in the internet. Another web page named as Marijuana: the controversy and truth you need to know in the BBC website, it listed out how cannabis affecting the world under the legalization culture. In the contrast of situation in Hong Kong, zero tolerance is the drug policy towards cannabis, cannabis is a drug, and no foundation on the policy of medical and recreational used of cannabis. This type of knowledge about medical used of cannabis and cultural difference would make people the curiosity on the views of cannabis. Moreover, a lot of pros cannabis related information are easily found in Internet and this will be discussed in term of social interaction among adolescent.
LIHKG is one of the widely used discussion forum in Hong Kong. The users in LIHKG is highly protected under its confidential policy, the publisher could not be recognized. Besides, not much care protection regulation are found in LIHKG discussion forum, any netizen whatever your age are, you can register the account for using it. Since users have much freedom on publish their post, they can share what they want, including but not limited to cannabis. The post sharing about own experience on taking cannabis are found in LIHKG, the post name as feeling happy after the used of cannabis. The content of the post focus on the experience on the use of cannabis in Netherlands coffee shop and the cannabis related products, including cannabis cake and the synthetic cannabinoids “High Hawaiians”. The post shares the publisher happiness and excitement on taking cannabis which enhance reader’s curiosity on cannabis. The interaction of the feedback in this post includes the ways how to take cannabis, the positive effect on taking cannabis, the benefits of using cannabis and the motivate of using cannabis etc. This discussion post increases the interaction of using cannabis, some feedback even shows their readiness on using cannabis and asking the way to buy cannabis etc. In some extend, the user can expand the knowledge of cannabis, and there are many ways and feedback attracting people for using cannabis.
Similarly, a lot of pro cannabis related information can be easily found and shared in Facebook and Instagram. Take an example on the Facebook page 420HongKong. Since April 20 is an international day of cannabis, so that 420 is a symbolic meaning to cannabis, so the wording of 420 means cannabis. The Facebook page 420Hongkong similar means cannabis in Hong Kong. This Facebook page shares lots of posts, including the cannabis related videos photos and news. The post may provide a controversy content, such as the post list out the number of cause of death in United State, including the 435,000 of death related smoking, 85000 caused by alcohol, 26,374 deaths in traffic accident, 100 people died in peanuts and zero number of death related to cannabis, so that the post draw a conclusion that cannabis is safe the peanuts. Precisely, we should understand that peanuts are a kind of food, and show no connection between peanuts and death, however the conclusion of this post may lead to the cannabis myths, such cannabis is a good and healthy food. These myths may be easily spread among the adolescents, such as cannabis is neither addictive nor being a no harm drug and less harm drug etc. During the Facebook page of 420Hongkong, the post could be leading for the promotion of cannabis, and it enhance the people for considering cannabis to be harmful. This “softening” of adolescent’s attitudes may be attributed to mixed and even favorable messages about marijuana in popular culture and the media. Besides Facebook page, a lot of cannabis related account or users would be found on Instagram. For an instance, if we search 420 ……can be expanded in this.
Reason of taking cannabis
With the study of different criminological theories, several theories could be applied in discussing the cannabis taking behaviors among the adolescents and youth adult. This literature shows social learning theory and differential association theory on explaining how peer influence affecting the interaction between the adolescent and young adulthood and cannabis. By adopting general strain theories and rational choice theory, discussing the choice and reason on people taking cannabis. Finally, sub-culture theory is used for the discussion how the cannabis culture maintains and spread out in internet.
Peer Influence on social learning theory and differential association theory
Sutherland stated that deviant behaviour, such as cannabis taking behaviours is seen to be product of learning from the interaction with peer groups in a process of communication. This peer groups are always close to each other and have a strong bonding among themselves. When an individual without drug taking behaviors have much contacts with cannabis abusers, with the sharing of cannabis related information, the individual is likely to accept cannabis, by the end the individual will develop the cannabis taking behaviors, so that’s simply differential association. The individuals can learn including the complicated techniques of cannabis, such as the cannabis knowledge, the way of taking or buying cannabis etc. They can also learn the specific direction of motives, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes, for example the cannabis users believed that cannabis is not a drug, it is natural and healthy product.
Differential associations may vary in frequency, duration, priority, and intensity, so if an individual put much time on surfing the information of cannabis in the pro-cannabis website, and discussing the cannabis with the netizen in the social media, it will be easily for the individual for accepting pro-cannabis related information, the individual will increase the acceptance of cannabis taking behaviours, finally he or she may join taking it. Social learning theory shows similarly to differential association theory that the cannabis taking behaviours is learnt from the peer groups. Social learning theory was developed and modified by a social psychologist Albert Ellis. It is believed that human social behavior is influenced by two sources: one is the result of the behaviour; the other is modelling. An individual learns a behaviour from one another, through observation, imitation and modelling. The learning of the cannabis taking behaviours is simply explained in face to face direct contact with cannabis users, beside the indirect contact through Internet are also developed. The interaction in the Internet would be discuss in the next chapter.
Criminologists Ronald Akers and Robert Burgess further developed the principles of social learning theory and operant conditioning with Edwin Sutherland’s differential association theory to create a comprehensive theory of criminal behaviours. It emphasized that criminal behaviour, such as cannabis taking behaviours is learned in both social and non-social situations through combinations of direct reinforcement, vicarious reinforcement, explicit instruction, and observation. Both the probability of being exposed to certain behaviours and the nature of the reinforcement are dependent on group norm. Sum up of these theories, taking cannabis behaviour can be simply shared in peer groups, and peer influence is the term of peer pressure that individual want to feel accepted and valued by the intimate group, that may result in taking cannabis behaviour, which could increase the intimacy in the peer group.
Strain theory and Rational Choice Theory
Strain theory is based on the idea of ‘shared values’ and is closely associated with structural functionalism. Merton introduced the concept of anomie, it was not seen to the product of rapid social change but rather due to the social structure that set common goals for everyone but does not provide everyone with the means of achieving these goals. Society is class based according to this view. Some people have more direct and immediate to the means of achievement than others. Since the gap between the rich and the poor in society is too large, some people pursue their better material lives by adopting an illegal criminal model to satisfy their desires. Some people anesthetize themselves with alcohol or drugs, and even more drug users, and then engage in drug transactions. Under the strain theory, drug addiction is a means of eliminating tension, used to achieve positive goals, protect positive stimuli, terminate or escape negative stimuli. Comparing with the finding of CRDA and the concept of strain theory, it comes similarly showing the reason of taking cannabis behaviors. Having relaxation is one of the typical reasons for the drug abusers taking cannabis in Hong Kong, since taking cannabis is related cheap and easily to make it, it will also reflect the cannabis used on relaxation for regulating the negative emotion. The data from the CRDA are limited, which have no information for understanding the cannabis abusers feel strain or not.
Robert Merton introduces four adaptation models, such as conformity, innovation, ritualism and retreatism etc., for explaining the society opportunities to get to the top are not shared equally. Merton referred to narcotics abuse as “retreatism,” meaning a withdrawal from the conventional society, the cannabis abusers examine frustrated society and far away from the cultural goal, so that they abandon the institutional mean, and turn to cannabis. Criminologist Robert Agnew further developed classical strain theory into general strain theory. In Agnew finding (1992), the term of strain would be divided into four categories, such as 1) failure to achieve positively valued goals, 2) a disjunction of expectations and achievement, 3) removal of positive stimuli and 4) introduction of negative stimuli. General strain theory (GST) has demonstrated significant explanatory power in clarifying the process in which adolescents choose to engage in substance use, since GST research show strong relationship between the substance used and adolescents with mood problem, so it is always used in explaining the substance use among the cannabis.
Cannabis taking behaviors are further explained by rational choice theory. It is developed by the economists, suggested that the behavior is individualizing, and purposeful and mainly lies on self-interest and goal-oriented under rationality. The rational choice theory discusses the formation of criminal decisions, emphasizing the construction of “criminal patterns”, so reducing the chance of getting a chance or magnifying the chance of missed action can allow the offender to produce a rational blocking effect in the process of deciding whether to commit a crime or not.
Psychology Perspectives
To be expanded with Stanton Peele’s experimental opinion on drug addiction…
CHAPTER FOUR
EXPERT OPINION
Professional doctrine on the ‘Impact of how internet social networking affect Hong Kong Youth’s Cannabis Use’
In the study of above topic, it is vital for us to obtain expert opinions and views to probe it from various perspectives. The filtering of certain facts from drug addict counseling may bring more scrupulous insight to our research to examine the relationship between Cannabis drug and internet social networking. As such, Dr CHAN Chi-hung, Joe, expert on drug addict counseling had been invited to offer his advice for our paper. Dr CHAN possesses profound knowledge not only on drug counseling but also the treatment concerns and some hidden issues on various drug addiction process such as what are main causes to the adolescence drug abuse.
Background of Dr CHAN Chi-hung, Joe
Dr. CHAN Chi-hung, Joe, aged 43, is the President of the Asian Association for Addiction Professionals(AAAP), the Asian Clinical Consultant and Course Director of the Canadian Council of Professional Certification (CCPC Global) Addiction Program, and the Course Director of the Canadian Lord God’s Seminary. He also possesses extensive clinical experience in drug addiction and is committed to researching as well as integrating Christian addiction theology. At the same time, he trains professional addiction counsellors in different parts of Asia. Over the past few years, Dr CHAN has been offering hundreds of counseling services to his clients and most of them are youngsters with addiction to psychotropic substances such as Cannabis and Cocaine. Throughout his counseling, he has known in many cases related to adolescence drug abuse which is commonly found in Hong Kong nowadays. Therefore, his opinion on drug addiction and the causes are very valuable references. On the other hand, he is also a serving police officer who has working experiences on dangerous drugs both related to seizure and arrest of addicts. It is also another source for him to enrich his experiences in drug abuse. Though Dr CHAN is by invitation, he is with keen interest to participate this project and hope his experiences will be useful to understand why and what causes certain drug abuse phenomenon which helps the write up of this related dissertation.
The interview
In November 2019, an expertise on drug addiction, Dr. CHAN, was interviewed to collect and examine the impact of internet social networking on youngster’s frequency of addicting Cannabis. This is also the dissertation topic for this group project. Dr CHAN possesses two Doctorate on ‘Psychology’ and the Doctor of Philosophy on ‘Addiction Counselling’. With previous experiences on drug counselling, Dr CHAN concurred to the dissertation statement and topic in agreeing the internet social media impact caused to the youngsters’ habit in controlling their frequency of addicting Cannabis. He has many counseling cases which most of them had been referred by different drug counseling centers such as Wu Oi Christian Centre. The Centre is taking care of various kinds of drug takers from some distinctive situations in drug addiction.
Cannabis relations with Internet Social Media
Dr CHAN’s clients had once shared and disclosed the impact about internet social media on Cannabis taking which provided useful materials for our dissertation which was beyond our expectation. With reference to those case enquiries from real stories, Dr CHAN strongly believed that social network had been one of the main causes in affecting the addiction process of Cannabis. Besides, he trusted that the policies of some overseas countries who widely acceptance Cannabis liked the legalization of it inevitably affected to the consumption patterns of people. The culture of it will surely be changed by these conditions as they will be signs of recognition to Cannabis existence. Together with the wide spreading by different social media, the addiction of Cannabis will be considered as a trend, fashion and even culture by the youngsters nowadays and it must be possessed and shown throughout their network.
Dr CHAN mentioned about certain social media, such as Facebook which had been used by his clients, a group of drug addicts or Cannabis takers, for sharing the and communicating information about Cannabis. The information that had been shared could be evidences to show the internet social media was one of the vital elements to induce youngsters to try dangerous drugs, such as Cannabis. It is just more than an ignition to motivate people for attempting dangerous drugs. ‘Telegram’ is also commonly used by the Cannabis takers who seldom disclosed their identities in other social media liked Facebook. Their groups had been supported by hundreds of people who would share as much information as they could about the tools, by-products and methods of taking Cannabis. They had treated these kinds of information spreading as fashion and enjoyment most of the times as recognition was gained in these social groups. For people who are interested in Cannabis, they may obtain the relevant information commonly from those media through the internet world. People, especially those drug addicts and takers believed that the environment of sharing will coagulate more people to join the conversation. Some of them even shared their overseas experiences on Cannabis after had a trip to Holland which was one of the countries decriminalized Cannabis.
Gateway Drug nature
Dr CHAN opined that through counselling, he was able to understand better the reasons behind his clients for reasons of taking Cannabis, especially how they could obtain experiences from their friends. Through interview, he knew some of his clients had even taken both Cocaine and Methamphetamine. It was not uncommon amongst the drug addicts. As such, amongst the takers, considered the Cannabis was comparatively mild and even believed to be less addictive at the beginning. Besides, drug takers had considered Cannabis as a means for people to relax. They failed to take precaution and even believed it less harmful than tobacco. It is also a valid reason for leading Cannabis to become a common drug in social groups as far as Dr CHAN had observed from his clients. In fact, Cannabis is harmful to youngsters and will lead their addiction to other drugs. Therefore, Cannabis is called a ‘Gateway’ drug. As such, Dr CHAN opined that we should not foster to accept Cannabis if we did not encourage cigarette. He further added that Cannabis contained ingredient which would cause addiction even through the process take times. It was unavoidably used it as means to handle stress and state of mind. If anyone had the strong desire, together that Cannabis was easily accessible, might cause greater effect to aggregate and increase the number of addictions amongst youngsters.
Other issues of Cannabis
Dr CHAN came to know the special terminology called ‘420’, the meaning of being the ‘International Day for Cannabis’ as he was on that day becoming the responsible person of the Curriculum Development in the Canadian Lord God’s Seminary. Of course, it is a coincident. It is also a specific sign to know Cannabis. On the other hand, Dr CHAN believed that the legalization of Cannabis in Canada gave everybody chances to buy it freely at there. Through interviewing and counseling, Dr CHAN became to know and understand better about the situation of addiction to Cannabis from his clients. For example, he came to know that the Cannabidiol (CBD) component in Cannabis had caused certain drug effects on human body despite of the fact that it had medical purpose and used for psychological treatment. It is a vital as taker must know the drug effects on human body and their consequences.
At the same time, Cannabis could be used for relaxation same as the psychotropic effect obtained from tobacco. Somebody even considered to adopt it for medical usages. Dr CHAN found that the young drug addicts did not defy and oppose Cannabis as they believed that it was rather easy to control and less chance of addictive. They would consider it than other kinds of dangerous drugs. Whilst considering the legalization of Cannabis, using Canada as an example, Dr CHAN expressed his view about the major difference in culture between Canada and Hong Kong. It should be noted that Hong Kong was a place with much tension and pressure which is totally different from Canada. In fact, Cannabis was even well-known to cure certain mental stressfulness and anxiety. Some of his friends and teenager clients had taken Cannabis simply because of curious. Most of them were encouraged by friends on first occasion. Dr CHAN remarked that it was currently hard to handle the drug addiction problem in Hong Kong due to different social environment and limitation of public resources. Therefore, he considered inappropriate to legalize Cannabis in Hong Kong.
Social Interactions for Cannabis
Dr CHAN’s clients said that the drug takers had different groups of friends to share experiences of Cannabis because it was their personal signs. It was rather natural as it was their habits. This explained that why the takers had to rely on social media for spreading their interests and other information on drugs. Dr CHAN even learnt from some clients about where to get Cannabis. It was common for the takers, if trusted you, to share such knowledge through different means of social media. Some of them even disclosed the planting of Cannabis simply because they did it for self-consumption. They enjoyed sharing the knowledge. Some takers addicted to Cannabis for a long period of time and were very skillful to take Cannabis. Dr CHAN learnt from his clients that people who addicted to Cannabis were willing to spend money on it. Some even attempted different methods to take it as they considered it as social interaction and a kind of party drug. They were looking for the enjoyment.
In fact, most of the Cannabis addicts were youths and students. They had seldom worried about the supply of Cannabis since there were always someone offering them such party drug free which increased chances for them to take it. Experienced takers would even try Cannabis habitually, regularly and frequently. Most of the takers had treated Cannabis as common as cigarette. This habit also shared amongst the takers as enjoyment. Dr CHAN confirmed that those who had taken Cannabis habitually would take it several times daily with only a straw on each occasion as they virtually enjoyed Cannabis so much.
Attraction on Cannabis and its withdraw effect
Through counseling and interviews, Dr CHAN was able to know how much money his clients, the Cannabis takers, would spend on it every single occasion. However, for the party occasions, his clients might not need to pay for it. On the other hand, his clients would spend money on tools and apparatus. Some of them even bought tools from overseas. They were willing to spend the money as they liked taking Cannabis and treated it as a kind of fashion which liked the smoking of cigarette. Through counseling, Dr CHAN found that Cannabis would truly help takers to release stress. People would take Cannabis when they were unhappy. Sometimes, people might not know the nature of Cannabis but for sure they understood it would cause addiction. Albeit, they believed themselves would have the capability to control addiction, particularly at the early stage. The takers also knew Cannabis possessed medical uses which could help people to focus and relax. Dr CHAN opined that his clients, the drug takers mostly considered Cannabis as cigarette. They believed Cannabis would not cause them with harmful effects. However, his clients would subsequently consult him because they had mixed Cannabis with other kinds of dangerous drugs leading to have withdrawn symptoms. They had mostly ignored the gateway function of Cannabis which made them to have craving situations as there is always a desire more effect on drug. On the other hand, most of his clients, friends and known teenagers already had experiences on rehabilitation and his clients mostly see Dr CHAN for a few months or even one year for the counseling.
Cannabis is harmless and a ‘Fashion’ in the eyes of takers
Dr CHAN confirmed that his clients had often read news or articles about Cannabis through internet since they might provide different information about kinds of refined Cannabis products. Clearly, the takers would like to understand more about Cannabis and most takers also looked for Cannabis by-products. Dr CHAN opined that takers chose to accept the information of Cannabis and would not think about its reliability. Furthermore, the takers would not care about failed the harmful effects of Cannabis and would ignore it anyway. Even though they knew the harmful effect of Cannabis through internet news, it would not change their mind. The takers believed Cannabis would not affect them as they only took it occasionally. Dr CHAN further alleged that the takers had obtained the advertisements and video from news and articles about Cannabis. They might even share amongst themselves as they considered it a commercial product liked other countries. Takers would follow Cannabis and treated it a fashion for consumption. How the positive news about Cannabis affected the frequency of consumption very much depending onto how large it would be involved in their life or even what the takers had expected from it. If they want a stress release, they might take more Cannabis. Therefore, the frequency of Cannabis consumption rested with each person’s need. Dr CHAN observed from his cases that people would not check the accuracy of news and articles about Cannabis when they come across the information. Basically, the takers would not examine the reliability of those articles in relation to Cannabis.
In sum, Dr CHAN has shared the following observations from his past counseling with the drug addicts. Firstly, the Cannabis takers are mostly youngsters who liked to share the drug information through internet social media such as Facebook. The sharing will induce other people who had known Cannabis for the first time to try it. Besides, the drug traffickers or friends may offer Cannabis to newcomers freely during social gathering or party which increased the chance of drug attempting by youngsters. In addition, Cannabis by-products created fashionable trend to motivate people to try. Cannabis takers mostly believed that it would not cause addict for the first attempt and it would release stress and relax function. This information had been circulated through internet social media and people would not challenge the reliability. Nevertheless, the frequency of taking Cannabis will depend onto the taker’s mind. If he or she is so tense and stressful, it will be easier induced to attempt more on this drug even though internet social media may cause certain effect on consumption pattern.
(To be expanded by Patrick)
CHAPTER FIVE
TRANSCRIPT ANALYSIS
As a tool not only facilitating communication among individuals across the globe, the prevalence of social media, such as Facebook, Instagram or YouTube, allows the users no longer simply receive information from these platforms but also create their own content to share their idea to the rest of the world in an instant manner without cost. Such content shared by every ordinary individual user in the world of social media can, however, evidently bring profound consequences to the world. With no doubt, social media is more than a communication means in the cyberspace, which should be instead reckoned as a powerful medium linking different parties in the world that can bring tremendous impact to the world at an overwhelming speed.
However, the increasing use of the Internet has also significantly re-shaped our everyday life, in particular our routines of buying and selling goods and services such that virtual online stores, such as Amazon, eBay or even some ‘Instagram stores’, have been taking a rising share in the consumer market. Despite the enormous benefits brought to the development of the modern society by the technological advancement, an alarming trend was also observed such that, as Bachhuber et al. (2017) argued, ‘the Internet also has become a means to buy and sell contraband-namely, drugs’ with the emergence of ‘illicit online pharmacies’ which offered the advertisement and sale of controlled substances to the public without a prescription since the early 2000s. For instance, in 2012, with the concerted efforts of INTERPOL and law enforcement agencies in more than 100 countries in the annual campaign ‘Operation Pangea’, illicit and counterfeit pills worth an estimated $10.5 million were seized with the closure of more than 18,000 relevant websites. The proliferation of the use of social media has, in no doubt, acted as the catalyst to boost the digital drug markets which are often open and broadly accessible to the public, including our youngsters. Combined with the growth of the ‘cryptomarkets’ with the use of anonymous internet tools, such as instant messaging applications like ‘Telegram’, anonymous browser like ‘Tor’ and even cryptocurrencies like ‘Bitcoin’, the development of digital online market is expected to be one of the largest challenges in combatting the youth drug abuse problem for all countries in the world. To look for hints on the prevalence of content in relation to cannabis in the social media platform, one can simply search for hashtags such as ‘hk420’, ‘hksmoker420’, ‘weedstagram420’ or ‘high’, and find information posted by users from different parts of the world promoting the use of cannabis and selling the paraphernalia.
To explore on the possible correlations between the use of cannabis by the youth in Hong Kong and their use of social media, the team has adopted a qualitative approach by inviting a total of nine subjects for individual semi-structured interviews, which included eight males and one female, mostly aged between 20 and 23 years old with only one outlier aged 29 years old (Subject 5). Besides, the subjects were of diversified background such that there were 4 subjects with secondary school level and 5 subjects as university graduates, enabling us to pursue this research with a good variety of candidates. This not only improves the applicability of the research findings but also allows the team to have a better understanding about the influence of social media on one’s habit in taking cannabis with consideration of such subject’s background.
Nevertheless, eight of the subjects interviewed have acquired the habit of using cannabis between 2 to 6 years with one exception (Subject 5), who is also a habitual user of drugs such as ICE and cocaine, that has been using cannabis for more than 15 years. In addition, two-third of the subjects would only use cannabis rather than any other illicit drugs, allowing a more focused discussion over the use of cannabis. At the meantime, the subjects interviewed are generally non-inveterate users such that one subject had already quitted the habit, three were under drug habilitation, four of the subjects considered themselves ‘occasional users’ and one (Subject 5) still remained to be a habitual user. In this regard, the study has covered a body of cannabis users relatively new to this drug, which can be the early stage of the development of their drug abuse, and hence we can expect a more significant impact of external factors, such as social media, to be demonstrated on the subject’s behavior on the abuse of cannabis.
Furthermore, to obtain a more comprehensive assessment on the concerned matters, the team has also visited two social workers and the president of the Asian Association for Addiction Professionals to seek their professional advice on the situation of cannabis abuse by the youth in Hong Kong from their perspective as well as their insight on its possible interrelation with the prevalent use of social media by our youngsters. (may be expanded)
Prior to devising effective measures in clamping down on the abuse of cannabis by a growing size of local youth, it is critical for the researchers as well as the authorities to first acquire a good understanding about the youth’s perception on the cannabis, namely the effects in association with cannabis, and the factors influencing a youth to use it or resisting to use it, for the sake of identifying the strengths and deficiencies of the cannabis education and awareness efforts currently in place to deal with misconceptions on cannabis held by the youth and optimize the prevention efforts.
General observations
Interviews with the subjects demonstrated that there are plenty of commonalities. Firstly, most of the subjects have friends or relatives using cannabis, who will also share information about cannabis with them and this usually result in the first trial by the subjects on the use of cannabis out of curiosity and peer pressure. Such finding is consistent to the observations from the social workers interviewed, who pointed out that cannabis is an illicit drug commonly shared among the adolescents while it is usually named as a ‘party drug’ used in ‘social gathering’. Many teenagers could first try cannabis out of curiosity and got addicted to it after learning about its impact to get one being ‘high’. Furthermore, the use of cannabis has gradually forged a sub-culture such that some rock band members or participants in X-sports could believe that using cannabis could enhance their performance and strengthen their identity within the sub-culture.
Furthermore, seven out of the nine subjects contended that they were not addicted to cannabis, who could, therefore, give rise to the conclusion that the reported adverse impacts of cannabis were untrue especially when a significant part of the subjects have claimed that using cannabis can bring ‘nothing’ or no adverse impacts to them while some foreign countries have also legalized the use of cannabis. Again, the social workers explained that this myth, including the saying that using cannabis was no different than drinking or smoking, was due to the fact that cannabis could indeed, as they observed, result in less obvious impacts on the teenage users when compared to taking drugs like ICE or ketamine but using cannabis can still bring a certain level of damage to the mental health of the users as well as their connection to the society.
Also, there are a majority of subjects have admittedly read content about cannabis online, such as websites, online forums or social media applications, which allowed them to gain access to an array of information about cannabis.
The above observations justified this research which aims at studying the correlations among the subject’s habit in using cannabis, significance from their friends and the influence of social media especially when we can already see the existence of such a trinity of these three pillars in this research. Nevertheless, a close scrutiny should be taken place for a more in-depth study on the relative significance and dynamic among these factors in nurturing the subjects’ habit of using cannabis.
Perceived risks on cannabis
Although two-third of the interviewees have indicated that they have learnt about the harmful impacts of cannabis through the conventional media, such as advertisements or school lectures, and showed awareness of cannabis being an illicit drug, only one-third of the interviewees believed that using cannabis is inappropriate while nearly half of the interviewees would consider using cannabis was a kind of ‘entertainment’ rather than a criminal behavior and addiction to cannabis is no different than addiction to alcohol or cigarette such that some of the interviewees claimed that using cannabis could be a choice of lifestyle just like drinking red wine which can be detrimental to health when taking an excessive amount of such substance. This perception can be ascribed to the belief from five of the interviewees such that cannabis is a natural substance and hence it is safe or less harmful for use when compared with other controlled substances or illicit drugs.
Interestingly, such an underestimation on the harmful impacts over the use of cannabis is more prevalent among the subjects who have only taken cannabis such that half of such subjects assented to this perception while there was only one subject, who have tried other illicit drugs, showed agreement on the harmful impacts of cannabis. In particular, Subject 5, the candidate who have the longest history of drug abuse with 15 years, asserted that cannabis was a kind of illicit drug and hence the use of it could certainly bring no benefits to the users. Similarly, these subjects showed a stronger belief over the purported benefits on the user of cannabis, namely the medical use of cannabis, the effects of cannabis in helping one to stay more focused or excited or less tired. Moreover, five out of such six subjects asserted that the online information they have read about cannabis has provided them with an ‘alternative perspective’ to learn better about cannabis rather than simply relying on the information they could have obtained from the traditional media or the authorities.
To this connection, these subjects, who can be labelled as less sophisticated users of illicit drugs, showed a greater tendency in accepting the thought that cannabis should not be reckoned as an illicit drug and it was prohibited only because the society has yet paid sufficient attention to the advantages it could bring, which has become gradually known to the public. The distinct contrast on the notions between the ‘subjects using only cannabis’ and ‘subjects using different kinds of cannabis’ could be ascribed to the fact such users, who are also only occasional cannabis users, have limited understanding on the adverse impacts over drug abuse when compared to those more sophisticated drug users. Seen in this light, the adverse impacts from cannabis, which is perceived as a less harmful illicit drug, can be underestimated by the teenagers as they had limited personal experience over drug abuse.
A similar comparison was taken place between subjects receiving secondary education and tertiary education but no meaningful implication can be derived, which can be owing to the fact the subjects are of similar age and hence there is no remarkable distinction on the level of education they have received that can affect their capabilities on critically reviewing the negative consequences of using cannabis.
In addition, seven out of nine interviewees believed that they were not addicted to cannabis while one-third of the interviewees even asserted that cannabis does nothing to them. Notably, the interviewees demonstrated a distrust on the negative impacts brought by the use of cannabis proposed by the authorities such as the government or other anti-drug organizations, which classified ‘cannabis’ as an illicit drug that can bring adverse health impacts to the users, as the subjects usually put more weight on their personal feeling after using cannabis rather than taking the official advice from the authorities into account. As a part of human development for youngsters, it is not uncommon to observe their inclination to act rebelliously and challenge the conventional norms in order to establish their own identity from their parents, teachers or other authoritative figures for independent decision-making.
Limited knowledge on cannabis
Moreover, the interviewees showed limited knowledge about cannabis such that in spite of the fact that six out of the nine interviewees indicated their awareness of 420 being a symbol of cannabis though they can have different illustrations on the origin of such meaning, which may be a date, a time or a code implying cannabis. Likewise, subjects who have only taken cannabis have showed a better knowledge on those ‘interesting facts’ about cannabis, such as ‘420 being a symbol of cannabis’, which may because they merely treat cannabis as a tool to look for excitement and joy.
Nevertheless, it is obvious that most of the interviewees do not have a comprehensive or in-depth understanding about cannabis such that only two of them could point out that THC (abbreviation of tetrahydrocannabinol) is one of the main psychoactive compounds in cannabis that gives the ‘high’ sensation, which can be considered to be a rather basic information on cannabis. In this regard, an inference can be drawn that the interviewees may choose to learn about the exciting parts of cannabis, such as the secret code ‘420’, rather than carefully study on the components of the substances they have taken.
Impact of social media on youngsters’ use of cannabis
Among the nine subjects, seven of them have read content about cannabis online, such as social media platforms. Nevertheless, replies from some subjects could have seemingly disapproved the argument that the prevalence of information about cannabis on social media could have played a key role in causing the youth abuse of cannabis. For instance, there was only one subject agreed that online information about cannabis is reliable while four of the subjects had opposite opinion. Furthermore, only one-third of the subjects would proactively search for information about cannabis online or read more articles about cannabis after reading content about cannabis online, however, they suggested that they would not take more cannabis even after reading such information.
However, the above observations should not be reckoned as evidence proving the absence of our local youths’ cannabis abuse and influence from social media. In particular, nearly half of the subjects agreed that reading information supporting the use of cannabis on social media can give rise to the positive impression on cannabis while two-third of them contended that they treated such information supporting the use of cannabis, which contradicted the image of cannabis promoted by the conventional media, and provide an alternative angle which may facilitate more discussion on the pros and cons of cannabis rather than labelling it as a substance detrimental to the user’s health. Considering that all subjects have tried using cannabis while only one of them (Subject 5) have stated clearly that cannabis should not be an item beneficial to its users, information about cannabis, including photos or videos with users using cannabis, use of various paraphernalia in using cannabis or ‘interesting facts’ about cannabis, could be easily exposed to our youth who have insufficient awareness over the adverse impacts brought by the use of cannabis. To this connection, the social workers indicated that such information published by the foreign users of cannabis assisted to create the false impression that the use of cannabis is a kind of entertainment rather than an illegal behavior, arousing interest from the local youth in Hong Kong as they would consider cannabis to be more interesting than other traditional drugs. Consequently, according to the social workers, it was not uncommon to see the local youth studying on different ways to consume cannabis, which was treated as an intriguing hobby. Without social media serving as a platform, the youngsters can hardly get access to such ‘alternative’ information, which could deteriorate the youth abuse of cannabis, especially when we could see such subjects ‘approved’ the use of cannabis, leading to the ‘confirmation bias’ when they come across such information favorable to cannabis.
The ‘Confirmation bias’ over the information supporting the use of cannabis displayed by the youth abusing cannabis could be demonstrated in one of the interviews of this research. Subject 7, stressed that cannabis should not be deemed as an illicit drug as World Health Organization (WHO) had already certified the possible medical use of cannabis and hence the objection to the legal use of cannabis could be due to the fact that the government or other authorities had yet obtained the up-to-dated information over the discovery of the medical use of cannabis.
Indeed, online research indicated that WHO had considered to remove cannabis from Schedule IV, which is the ‘most restrictive category of a 1961 drug convention signed by countries from around the world’ in February 2019 (Forbes, 2019). However, it should be noted that the same article has stressed that cannabis would remain in Schedule I, and hence still a restrictive drug in the regime. Moreover, the most updated description on cannabis from the website of WHO clearly stated the ‘acute health effects of cannabis use’, namely impairment of ‘cognitive development’ and ‘psychomotor performance in a wide variety of tasks’, as well as the ‘chronic health effects of cannabis use’. Albeit the same website has mentioned the ‘therapeutic uses of cannabinoids (i.e. compounds which are structurally similar to THC, a major psychoactive constituent in cannabis)’ which are demonstrated in several studies for the therapeutic effects for nausea and vomiting in the advanced stages of illnesses such as cancer and AIDS, WHO also reminded the readers such that ‘more research is needed on the basic neuropharmacology of THC and other cannabinoids so that better therapeutic agencies can be found’ rather than promoting cannabis as an effective means in curing diseases (WHO, 2020). Obviously, it can illustrate how a cannabis abuser can ‘selectively’ overlook the negative information about cannabis but emphasize only on the information suggesting the positive use of cannabis.
Worse still, though the subjects were reluctant in disclosing details on the way they could get access to cannabis or purchase such drugs, the social workers shed some light on this area by unveiling that social media has not assisted in disseminating information about cannabis but also served a channel for the youngsters to promote and deliver the cannabis. Considering the youngsters could have easily remained anonymous with the use of social media, it was not difficult for them to make use of social media to sell or share cannabis with their friends or even strangers while we also observed remarkable development on the logistic industry. Meanwhile, such a covert channel made the youngsters consider that the trade of cannabis can be safer with the use of social media such that the law enforcers could secure evidence against them. Seen in this light, they could be more willing to try cannabis by making purchase via social media.
CHAPTER SIX
OUTCOMES
Findings
There are findings from the transcript analysis of the interview. From general observation, we could see that most of the interviewees or named “Subjects” here have friends or relatives using cannabis. Those people will share information about cannabis with the interviewees or the subjects which resulted to their curiosity to the first trial of cannabis not only because of other factors such as the peer pressure. However, the interviewees failed to spot the perceived risks on taking cannabis and underestimated the harmful impacts over the use of cannabis. Interviewees perceived the use of cannabis had been more prevalent with views on it liked a fashion. Only one interviewee had tried other illicit drugs agreed on the harmful impacts of cannabis. The researchers have also found out that most of the interviewees do not have a comprehensive or in-depth understanding about cannabis. Only two of them could point out that THC (abbreviation of tetrahydrocannabinol) is one of the main psychoactive compounds in cannabis which gives the ‘high’ sensation and it is considered as a rather basic information on cannabis. Among the other nine interviewees, seven of them have read contents or composition about cannabis through the internet world and sources, such as from various social media platforms. Furthermore, almost half of the interviewees agreed that reading information supporting the use of cannabis on social media can give rise to the positive impression on cannabis while two-third of them contended that they treated such information supporting the use of cannabis, which contradicted the image of cannabis promoted by the conventional media, and provide an alternative angle which may facilitate more discussion on the pros and cons of cannabis rather than labelling it as a substance detrimental to the user’s health. In general, majority of the interviewees showed supportive attitude to cannabis use instead of against it. Their mentality had been mostly related to the affection laid by the multi-touch opportunities from various social media networking which is understandable in contemporary situation that most of the adolescences obtained their information through different internet sources without much of their facts being checked. It is a common act within their social groups.
Information of Cannabis through Word-of-Mouth
According to the Cannabis Dispensary Content Marketing Strategies: A Guide | Foottraffik (n.d.), a marketing software (SAAS) and online cannabis marketing agency, whose fundamental beliefs advised all that they do, from how we connect with customers and accomplices, to making the most imaginative, most elevated ROI advanced advertising programs, they use the word-of-mouth marketing because it is one of the most established and most solid types of promotion. Observe: WOMM covers yet isn’t equivalent to “informal” (the normally happening impact of giving predominant items and administration). Nowadays, verbal showcase is a segment of any balanced cannabis dispensary content advertising technique. Additionally, they have also stated that WOMM includes intentionally and proactively reassuring your clients to get the message out — to be your “image diplomats.” It’s one of the most impressive and economical approaches to get business. WOMM can involve getting your clients to prescribe your dispensary to a companion or colleague. It might incorporate compensating normal clients who advance your dispensary.
Obviously, everything begins with your budtenders: guarantee they give extraordinary client care, that they’re inviting to everybody and are educated about the items you offer (and how to best utilize them) (Cannabis Dispensary Content Marketing Strategies: A Guide | Foottraffik, n.d.). From the website, it was stated that 85% of small businesses get customers through word-of-mouth, 84% of consumers say they either completely or somewhat trust recommendations from family, colleagues, and friends about products and services – making these recommendations the highest ranked source for trustworthiness, and 74% of consumers identify word-of-mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decision (Cannabis Dispensary Content Marketing Strategies: A Guide | Foottraffik, n.d.). This supports the notion that because the online markets usually show a positive image on cannabis, these people who use the internet a lot will have a positive perception on the use of cannabis. Additionally, those who do not check social media a lot, but have a relative, friend, family member or someone close who uses social media and took cannabis, will spread information about it to their peers through word-of-mouth.
Peer Pressure on the Intake of Cannabis
According to Hartney (2020), peer pressure could have impact on youngster to get associated with sports. This association could be sure, prompting introduction to solid ways of life and good examples, and inevitably driving the youngster to turn into a positive good example herself. Peer pressure makes kids do things they would not in any case do with the desire for fitting in or being seen, and obviously, this can incorporate trying different things with liquor and additionally medicates. Past inciting children to utilize drugs, peer pressure or the longing to intrigue their friends can supersede a high schooler or tween’s dread of facing challenges, as indicated by the National Institute on Drug Abuse for Kids (Hartney, 2020).
The impacts of peer pressure can either be advantageous or negative. One territory in which companion weight can have a negative impact is drinking and medication use. According to Renzoni (2019), an audit of the examination shows that friends impact juvenile substance maltreatment than do guardians. Companions can urge companions to utilize medications and liquor or bother them for being hesitant to attempt them, which can prompt the commencement of drinking and medication use. The impacts of friend weight can, at the same time, affected sexual conduct amongst the adolescents. One of the investigations found companions’ perspectives about sex significantly affect the sexual conduct of teenagers (Renzoni, 2019). On the other hand, what is more about of having peers who are explicitly dynamic is connected to commitment in dangerous sexual exercises. It is critical to take note of that regardless of the negative impacts of peer pressure, there are a few advantages related to peer impact. The former investigation found that companions’ convictions could emphatically impact perspectives with respect to contraception and safe sex (Renzoni, 2019). An extra examination found that companions can affect prosocial, or helping, practices. All these supported the notion that peer pressure can actually induce the use of cannabis because of the influence of the teenager’s peers.
Underestimation of the Harmful Impacts of the Use of Cannabis
Another point that the researchers have found out is that the respondents do not know the harmfulness of cannabis. Despite of the fact that legitimization activists and numerous cannabis clients think smoking pot has no negative impacts, logical examination shows that cannabis use can cause a wide range of medical issues. Cannabis is one of the most generally utilized illegal medications in the United States (Buddy T, 2019). At the point when smoked, it starts to influence clients very quickly and can keep going for one to three hours. Likewise, when it is treated in food for consumption, liked prepared in brownies and treats, the effects will take more time to start, yet generally last more (Buddy T, 2019). The active ingredient in cannabis, delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol or the Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), follows up on cannabinoid receptors on nerve cells and affected the action of those cells. Some mind zones have numerous cannabinoid receptors, yet different regions of the cerebrum have not many or none by any means. Numerous cannabinoid receptors are found in the pieces of the cerebrum that impact delight, memory, thought, focus, tangible and time observation, and composed development (Buddy T, 2019). In a couple of moments in the wake of smoking pot, the heart starts pulsating all quickly and the circulatory strain drops. Cannabis can make the heartbeat increment by 20 to 100% and circulatory strain is somewhat diminished. As per an audit distributed in 2017, cannabis clients’ hazard for a coronary episode ranges from four to multiple times higher inside the primary hour subsequent to smoking pot, contrasted with their general danger of a respiratory failure when not smoking (Buddy T, 2019).
Exploration distributed in 2017 found that individuals who smoke a lot of pot all the time have diminished bone thickness, which can expand the danger of bone breaks. The investigation at the University of Edinburgh utilized DEXA-examine x-beams and found that overwhelming clients of cannabis had a lower body weight and a decreased weight file (BMI), which could add to loss of bone thickness (Buddy T, 2019). Substantial clients were characterized as the individuals who had smoked in excess of multiple times during their lifetime. Be that as it may, another examination distributed in 2017, took a gander at review and wellbeing data for very nearly 5,000 grown-ups and didn’t discover any relationship between diminished bone thickness and cannabis use (Buddy T, 2019). Smoking cannabis, even rarely, can cause consuming and stinging of the mouth and throat, and cause substantial coughing. As indicated by an audit distributed in 2019, researchers have discovered that customary marijuana smokers can encounter indistinguishable respiratory issues from tobacco smokers do, including day by day hack and mucus creation, expanded danger of lung contaminations, increasingly visit intense chest ailments, most pot smokers devour significantly less cannabis than cigarette smokers expend tobacco, be that as it may, the destructive impacts of smoking weed ought not be disregarded (Buddy T, 2019).
Cannabis contains a comparative measure of cancer-causing hydrocarbons as tobacco smoke. Based on above, cannabis smokers commonly breathe in more profound and hold the smoke in their lungs longer than tobacco smokers. Their lungs are presented to those cancer-causing properties longer, when smoking. As per a survey distributed in 2015, one investigation found that cannabis smokers were multiple times bound to create malignancy of the head or neck than non-smokers, yet that review couldn’t be affirmed by further examination (Buddy T, 2019). Since pot smoke contains multiple times the measure of tar found in tobacco smoke and various cancer-causing agents, it would appear to be coherent to derive that there is an expanded danger of lung malignant growth for pot smokers. In any case, specialists have not had the option to conclusively demonstrate such a connection based upon the fact that their examinations have not had the option to alter for tobacco smoking and different components that may likewise expand the hazard. Studies connecting cannabis smoking to lung malignant growth have likewise been restricted by determination inclination and little example size (Buddy T, 2019). For instance, the members in those investigations may have been too youthful to even consider having created lung malignant growth yet.
Despite of the fact that specialists presently can’t seem to “demonstrate” a connection between smoking pot and lung disease, customary smokers might need to think about the hazard (Buddy T, 2019). A few investigations have discovered that kids destined to moms who utilized pot during pregnancy display a few issues with neurological turn of events. As per a 2018 survey of those investigations, pre-birth cannabis presentation can make modified reactions visual boosts, expanded tremulousness, helpless critical thinking aptitudes, issues with continued consideration and memory (Buddy T, 2019).
Summary and Implications
This study attempted to identify the impact of internet social networking such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram on how the youth’s behavior on Cannabis use in the contemporary situation. This research study involved nine individual respondents with drug addiction experiences. They were eight males and one female of age between 20 and 29 with one of them being an outlier of age 29 years old. The subject respondents were of diversified backgrounds. Four of them are having secondary school level whilst another five are university graduates. Those arrangements enable us to pursue this research with a good variety of candidates. It also allows us to find out what factors contributed and influenced the respondents to use cannabis, such as their demographics, knowledge and perception of cannabis, habit of taking cannabis and the use of Internet social media which included their perceptions of it together with the correlations with the consumptions of cannabis.
On the other hand, the literature suggested that cannabis acts as a gateway drug, as consumers of the drug considered cannabis to be comparatively mild and even less addictive at the beginning. Besides, drug takers had considered cannabis as a means for people to relax. They failed to take precaution and even believed it less harmful than tobacco. It is also a valid reason for causing cannabis to become a common drug in social groups. This has significant implications for the rise in consumption of cannabis as it could potentially lead on to increased consumption of more destructive drugs. Furthermore, the research also suggested that peer pressure had been one of the key drivers for cannabis consumption. These peer groups are always close to each other and have strong ties between them. It was found that some individuals without drug abuse might accept cannabis easily after received information shared by others together with the contacts of some drug abusers. This may be out of curiosity or believing that he or she may not addict cannabis easily after the first attempt.
However, individuals will develop cannabis behavior subsequently and it is thus simply a discriminatory relationship. Research interviews reviewed that individuals may learn, including the complex techniques of cannabis: cannabis knowledge, cannabis use, or how to buy. They may also learn from the internet communications for the specific motivations, drives, rationalizations, and attitudes that cannabis users think liked the “Weed is not a drug but is a natural and healthy product”. From reviewing the literatures, it is found that human social behavior is influenced by two causes, the result of behavior and the modeling. Individuals learn to behave with each other through observation, imitation and modeling. Learning about the behavior of cannabis is simply explaining in direct face-to-face with cannabis users, and indirect contacts via the Internet are also developed.
Notably, psychological theory suggests that the class-based nature of society has a contributory effect to the consumption of cannabis among the youths. For example, as mentioned earlier, strain theory, based on the idea of ‘shared values’ and closely associated with structural functionalism, may be applied here. The concept of anomie suggests that social structure that set common goals for everyone but does not provide everyone with the means of achieving these goals. Society is class based according to this view. Some people have more direct and immediate to the means of achievement than others. Since the gap between the rich and the poor in society is too large, some people pursue their better material lives by adopting an illegal criminal model to satisfy their desires. Some people anesthetize themselves with alcohol or drugs, and even more to become the drug users, and then engage in drug transactions. Under the strain theory, drug addiction is a means of eliminating tension, used to achieve positive goals, protect positive stimuli, terminate or escape negative stimuli.
The research made use of the semi-structured interview to fit for this qualitative study simply because it is intrinsically difficult to identify participants for the research, to the leverage limitation arising from the sampling size and explore the perception of cannabis use and influences of the internet social networking platforms from closely knitted angles. A framework of questions had been asked to those respondents to obtain the categories of information answering the research question without losing focus in the interviews. It also allows flexibility for facilitating product conservation and building up of rapport for eliciting the respondents’ revelation of their habit of using cannabis and perception of the drug.
All the variables each had a significant relationship to their use of social media. Each variable also had a significant effect on social media when analyzed individually. For example, …….. The respondents’ knowledge on cannabis was due to their knowledge obtained from online forums, websites and other platforms. Besides, they may obtain information from the sharing of experiences from their family members and friends. The perception of cannabis of internet social media is also greatly influenced by cannabis users. Since the internet is just a platform where people can share their experiences, the perception of cannabis varies depending on its effect to the user. Nevertheless, some of our interviewees are not truly addicted to drugs.
In the Transcript Analysis, it was stated that most of the respondents had friends or relatives that were also using cannabis and share their information about cannabis. It was also stated that teenagers first attempt on cannabis was because of curiosity. However, they had addicted it after learned its impact to get one being “high”. Aside from this, majority of the respondents have admittedly read content about cannabis online, such as websites, online forums or social media applications, which allowed them to access to an array of information about cannabis. Therefore, under the contemporary situation, it is no doubt that internet social media liked Facebook, Twitter and Instagram had strong impact to youth’s behavior on cannabis. The habit of using Internet social media surfaced as the variable with the most significant effect on customer satisfaction while their knowledge of cannabis had the least significant effect as supported by the transcript of the interview.
Conclusion
The gathered information has identified the profile of the respondents. Furthermore, results of the study which underwent a semi-structured interview format and analysis:
- Despite of the fact that cannabis remains an illicit drug in Hong Kong, we must admit that it is one of the popular and prevalent drugs taken by youngsters. It is also a kind of party drug commonly used within most of the youth groups which believed that its effectiveness in making one ‘high’ together with less harmful effects when compared with other drugs. Some new users did not know the consequence of taking cannabis and thought that cannabis was relatively less harm than other drugs. As such, there always voices from the youngsters about the decriminalization or even legalization of cannabis.
- Cannabis was known to the ancient Assyrians as they had discovered its psychoactive properties through the Iranians. In the course of its development in Hong Kong, the social media had played a significant and vital role which allowed our teenagers to obtain more relevant information about cannabis, which may contain purported benefits of using cannabis that the youngsters could not receive through the traditional means or some interesting facts that may attract the attention from the youngsters. Youngsters are mostly rebellious and internet social media may aggregate their desire on cannabis as it is considered as trendy and fashionable.
The interviews showed that the youngsters could be actually unwilling to obtain an in-depth understanding on cannabis, such as its content which can make one feeling ‘high’, but only focused on the fun facts, such as origin of 420 or ways to inhale or smoke cannabis. Almost half of the subject interviewees claimed reading information supporting cannabis use on social media could give a positive impression on cannabis, two-thirds of which contradicted the cannabis image with such information supporting cannabis use. It provides an alternative angle that can facilitate more discussion than indicating the advantages and disadvantages of cannabis as a harmful substance to the health of a user and is promoted by conventional media. All topics attempted to use cannabis, but one of them (title 5) stated that cannabis should not be a beneficial item for users. Information about cannabis, including photos or videos of users using cannabis, using various tools or using ‘interesting facts’ about cannabis can easily be exposed to adolescents who are inadequately aware of the side effects of cannabis use. In this regard, social workers noted that such information posted by foreign users of cannabis helped to raise interest from local young people in Hong Kong by inducing a false impression that cannabis use was a kind of entertainment, not an illegal act.
They think cannabis is more interesting than other traditional drugs. As a result, it is not uncommon for local youths to study other ways of consuming cannabis, which is treated as interesting cannabis, according to social workers. If social media is not provided as a platform, young people can have little access to these ‘alternative’ information, which can worsen youth abuse in marijuana. Especially when they ‘approved’ the use of cannabis and ‘approved’ it can lead to ‘confirmation’ when they get such information that is favorable to cannabis. The ‘confirmation bias’ of information supporting the use of cannabis represented by juvenile abuse cannabis can be demonstrated in interviews in this study.
Subject 7 is not supposed to be considered illegal drugs because the World Health Organization (WHO) has already certified the medical use of cannabis, so opposition to the legal use of cannabis has been up to date with the government or other authorities regarding the discovery of medical use of cannabis.
- As long as these youngsters have tried cannabis and developed the habit of using it, they would subsequently nurture a ‘confirmation bias’ on information they received concerning cannabis and formed unsound opinion that some privileged institutions could also support the use of cannabis while they could omit the downside of cannabis illustrated by the same institutions. Unfortunately, they may spread these false impressions or deliver such drug among their friends, which could be in an even faster fashion with the use of social media, resulting in a rapid development of cannabis use among adolescents in our city.
[1] The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (HKFYG) is Hong Kong’s largest youth service organization. The Youth Outreaching team and Youth Night Drifting team are under the HKFYG Youth Crime Prevention Centre, which provides five categories of services: prevention and education, crisis intervention and professional assessment, counselling and treatment, multi-disciplinary collaboration and advocacy. There are innovative and effective services for youth at risk, young offenders, victims and all family members in three main areas: youth crime and deviance, sex-related crises and drug abuse.