XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.transgendered, sac.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: froid@sane.org   
      
   Steve Cummings  wrote in   
   news:suk3f8$1ckgp$73@news.freedyn.de:   
      
   > progressive pot smoking parents encourage sexual dysfunction, make   
   > believe and mental illness among their offspring.   
      
   Young people classified as bisexual not only use cannabis more frequently   
   but also are more likely to use it to cope with mental health issues and   
   for what researchers call experiential "enhancement."   
      
   A recent study, titled "The Pot at the End of the Rainbow," is one of the   
   first to examine motives for cannabis use among sexual minorities   
   quantitatively. Led by Washington State University psychologists,   
   researchers analyzed survey data from nearly 4,700 university students   
   from across the country. Of the participants, 23% were classified as   
   bisexual after indicating that they were not exclusively attracted to one   
   gender.   
      
   "The group classified as bisexual was more likely to report using cannabis   
   to cope as well as for enhancement, which is a bit surprising," said Kyle   
   Schofield, a WSU Ph.D. candidate in psychology and first author on the   
   study published in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research. "The   
   coping motive was less surprising because we also saw that the group   
   classified as bisexual reported higher levels of all the mental health   
   problems that we looked at in the study."   
      
   The bisexual group reported higher levels of cannabis use disorder, social   
   anxiety, generalized anxiety, depression and suicidality than either the   
   groups classified as exclusively "straight" or "gay"-;findings that are in   
   line with previous research.   
      
   People who are in sexual minority groups not only face normal life stress   
   but also an additional column of stress that's related to being a sexual   
   minority. For bisexual people, there may be even more different types of   
   stress since they can face discrimination from gay as well as straight   
   communities, and additional stress can lead to negative mental health   
   outcomes."   
      
   Kyle Schofield, a WSU Ph.D. candidate in psychology and first author on   
   the study   
      
   The authors said the study results could help improve mental health target   
   interventions for bisexual individuals.   
      
   For this study, Schofield worked with his advising professor Carrie   
   Cuttler to analyze archival data from an Addictions Research Team survey,   
   which combines participant pools from 10 universities across the U.S.   
      
   The researchers focused on survey respondents who were ages 18 to 30. They   
   relied on a question that asked participants to rank their attraction to   
   genders on a scale, grouping those who reported being "mostly   
   heterosexual" and "mostly homosexual" as bisexual along with those who   
   claimed both types of attraction. This yielded 3,483 who were in the   
   "straight" group, another 1,081 in the "bisexual" group, and a small group   
   of 105 individuals who were classified as "gay."   
      
   The researchers used the "Marijuana Motives Measure," which is based off   
   one developed for alcohol, to assess five potential reasons for use:   
   enhancement, conformity, expansion, coping and social. While some of the   
   motives, like coping, have negative issues associated with them,   
   enhancement does not, as of yet.   
      
   While the study could not give a reason this motive was so strong with the   
   bisexual group, Cuttler speculated that it might have to do with being   
   open to new experiences.   
      
   "Enhancement is about expanding one's own awareness, being more open to   
   experience and more creative, so perhaps it all this comes back to   
   openness," said Cuttler, an assistant professor of psychology and senior   
   author on the study.   
      
   From this sample, the researchers also found that people in the bisexual   
   group were not only more likely to report using cannabis and using it more   
   frequently but also were more likely to use all three types of cannabis   
   listed in the survey: flower, edibles and concentrates.   
      
   Cuttler said this was concerning because concentrates typically contain a   
   higher level of THC or tetrahydrocannabinol, the psychoactive component of   
   cannabis.   
      
   The authors acknowledged that the study was limited by the use of sexual   
   attraction data rather than sexual identity but hoped the results would   
   spur further investigations. The authors also noted that they had limited   
   power to detect differences in the group classified as gay given the   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)