In the Shadows of Policing: Sibling Perspectives on Cannabis Use in American Youth
Cannabis is one of the most widely used substances among adolescents. Cannabis use during adolescence can affect brain development, impair cognitive function, and negatively affect physical health. An assessment examining why adolescents use cannabis can inform prevention efforts working to minimize the deleterious effects of cannabis on adolescent development. Adolescent cannabis use and its potential adverse effects extend beyond physical health concerns and intersect with social disadvantages, including the adverse impact of policing on youth. Police contact can be a stressful experience for youth because adolescents may view police stops as exceedingly punitive for the types of misdemeanors they choose to engage in. To cope with the stress of police intervention, are youth using more cannabis, and how do we measure this while accounting for environmental confounds (e.g., crime, socioeconomic disadvantage)? To answer these questions, the present study analyzed substance use rates in youth from a longitudinal study of 5,944 unrelated participants (i.e., singletons) and 6,742 related participants (i.e., siblings) from the National Longitudinal Study of Youth – 1979. Results indicated that singleton individuals who experienced more police stops, on average, used more cannabis 4 years later. Moreover, individuals who encountered more police stops than their siblings were, on average, using more cannabis. The present findings highlight the need for more developmentally appropriate approaches to understand youth’s experiences and mitigate early substance use among youth.
Keywords: Policing; substance use; delinquency; marijuana use; youth