Digital Commons Network^™

Re/Descheduling Marijuana Through Administrative Action, Scott P. Bloomberg, Alexandra Harriman, Shane Pennington

Faculty Publications

In October 2022, President Biden requested that the Secretary of Health and Human Services and the Attorney General initiate a procedure to review how marijuana is scheduled under the federal Controlled Substances Act (“CSA”). The announcement was historic. After more than fifty years of federal prohibition, decades of advocacy and litigation from reform groups, and dozens of stalled efforts in Congress, a President finally decided to wield the Executive Power with an eye towards rescheduling or descheduling marijuana. But just how far does that power go? Given President Biden’s request, the question is in serious need of scholarly attention.
This …

Burning Questions: Changing Legal Narratives On Cannabis In Indian Country, Robin M. Rotman, Sam J. Carter

Faculty Publications

In the not-so-distant past, thoughts of Cannabis legalization in the United States were radical. In the present day, the narratives around Cannabis are changing. The term “present day” affixes this Article to early 2023, a snapshot in time. To understand the current legal narratives surrounding Cannabis, and what they might become in the future, it is important to examine the history of Cannabis law and policy in United States. This Article begins by discussing Cannabis regulation in the United States, from the rise of federal regulation to the gradual deregulation by states with tacit federal consent. The Article then examines …

Assessing The Testability Of The Multi-Theory Model (Mtm) In Predicting Vaping Quitting Behavior Among Young Adults In The United States: A Cross-Sectional Survey., Manoj Sharma, Kavita Batra, Ravi Batra, Chia-Liang Dai, Traci Hayes, Melinda J. Ickes, Tejinder Pal Singh

Faculty Publications

Purpose: Given the increased exposure to e-cigarettes and nicotine among young adults, difficulty in quitting vaping is likely, which supports the need for effective behavioral interventions. Therefore, this cross-sectional study aims to assess the testability of the contemporary multi-theory model of health behavior change in predicting the vaping quitting behavior among young adults in the United States.

Methods: A nationally representative sample of 619 young adults engaged in vaping behavior and aged 18–24 years was recruited to complete a 49-item web-based survey. A structural equation model was used to test relationships between MTM constructs. Hierarchical multiple regression was …

Frenemey Federalism, Scott P. Bloomberg

Faculty Publications

This article introduces the concept of Frenemy Federalism. The term “frenemy” is a portmanteau of “friend” and “enemy” that is defined as a person with whom one is friendly despite a fundamental dislike or rivalry. A frenemy relationship develops between the federal and state governments when the governments work together despite having conflicting objectives in an area of policy. In such situations, mutual incentives make cooperation between the governments conducive to achieving their respective goals, allowing what may otherwise be a contentious relationship to find stability. Amidst the growing body of federalism scholarship, I situate Frenemy Federalism as a point …

Legalization Without Disruption: Why Congress Should Let States Restrict Interstate Commerce In Marijuana, Scott P. Bloomberg

Faculty Publications

Over the past twenty-five years, states have developed elaborate regulatory systems to govern lawful marijuana markets. In designing these systems, states have assumed that the Dormant Commerce Clause (“DCC”) does not apply; Congress, after all, has banned all commerce in marijuana. However, the states’ reprieve from the doctrine may soon come to an end. Congress is on the verge of legalizing marijuana federally, and once it does, it will unleash the DCC, with dire consequences for the states and the markets they now regulate. This Article serves as a wake-up call. It provides the most extensive analysis to date of …

Classical And Neural Network Machine Learning To Determine The Risk Of Marijuana Use, Laura Zoboroski [*], Torrey J. Wagner, Brent T. Langhals

Faculty Publications

Marijuana is the most commonly abused drug for military personnel tested at the Air Force Drug Testing Laboratory. A publicly available dataset of drug use, personality trait scores and demographic data was modeled with logistic regression, decision tree and neural network models to determine the extent to which marijuana use can be predicted using personality traits. While the logistic regression model had lower performance than the neural network model, it matched the sensitivity of prior work (0.80), achieved a high level of significance (p < 0.05) and yielded valuable inferences. It implied that younger, less educated individuals who exhibit sensation-seeking behavior and are open to experience tend to be at higher risk for THC use. A method for performing an iterative multidimensional neural network hyperparameter search is presented, and two iterations of a 6-dimensional search were performed. Metrics were used to select a family of 8 promising models from a cohort of 4600 models, and the best NN model’s 0.87 sensitivity improved upon the literature. The model met an f1 overfitting threshold on the test and holdout datasets, and an accuracy sensitivity analysis on a holdout-equivalent dataset yielded a 95% CI of 0.86 ± 0.04. These results have the potential to increase the efficacy of drug prevention and intervention programs.

The Surprising Reach Of Fda Regulation Of Cannabis, Even After Descheduling, Erika Lietzan, Sean M. O'Connor

Faculty Publications

As more states legalize cannabis, the push to "deschedule" it from the Controlled Substances Act is gaining momentum. At the same time, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) recently approved the first conventional drug containing a cannabinoid derived from cannabis - cannabidiol (CBD) for two rare seizure disorders. This would all seem to bode well for proponents of full federal legalization of medical cannabis. But some traditional providers are wary of drug companies pulling medical cannabis into the regular small molecule drug development system. The FDA's focus on precise analytical characterization and on individual active and inactive ingredients may be …

Role Of The Endocannabinoid System And Medical Cannabis, Sabrina Jarvis, Sean Rassmussen, Blaine A. Winters

Faculty Publications

Our bodies produce complex substrates called endocannabinoids, which attach to the endocannabinoid system (ECS) receptors and impact many physiologic processes. Current research on the ECS and cannabis-based medications is accelerating in the presence of continued conflict between federal and state laws. In this article we present a summary of the latest information on the ECS, its receptors, and current research on the cannabis-based medicines and their potential to treat various disease pathologies and medical conditions. Our study includes the latest information on the continued legal ramifications nurse practitioners face in treating patients with these medications.