Cannabis-derived drugs are among the most widely used illicit substances in the world

The handful of existing attempts to model outcomes from cannabis law reform in New Zealand have faced significant domestic and international data limitations, most importantly the limited data on cannabis legalization implemented over- seas . As described earlier, we utilized the NZ-DHI estimates of the health and social harm of cannabis as the starting point for our MCDA model. While this report had access to national statistics on cannabis use and harm, there remained gaps in data and, as a result, simplifying assumptions had to be made to complete the estimates . A number of these assumptions are controversial, such as the decision to split the remaining 64 drug related deaths that could not be assigned to opioid overdose or psychedelics evenly between amphetamines and cannabinoids . This decision may be linked to the inability at the time to separate natural cannabis from synthetic cannabinoids in official statistics, as synthetic cannabinoids have been linked to a number of over- doses in New Zealand .

Furthermore, mobile grow systems all the acquisitive crime committed by people with cannabis dependence is as- signed to cannabis harm without determining the causal role cannabis use may have played in motivating these offences. Second, as noted at the beginning of this paper, one of the recommendations from the recent MCDA of drug policy is to broaden the decision- making group . Our MCDA achieved this objective to an extent by including officials from a range of government agencies and NGO workers concerned with drug and health issues, including M āori, cannabis legalization activists, medicinal cannabis industry, drug treatment and mental health, and law enforcement organizations. This could be taken further to include those most affected by the current cannabis prohibition and reform options, including youth, M āori, Pasifika, parents of adolescents, and those living in high deprivation communities. To ensure the views of these affected groups are not swamped by the majority view in a combined workshop, a series of MCDA workshops could be conducted with each entirely com- promising members of one of the affected groups . While we were not able to convince the main anti-cannabis legalization activist group to attend the MCDA, we had a range of government and NGO stakeholder participants who may have been am- bivalent, or even opposed, legalization .

The refusal of the main antileglization group to attend may reflect their view, wrongly held in this case, that the forum is not interested in their perspective or values. Indeed, the rejection of the NZ cannabis referendum has in part been explained by a failure to engage with conservative right-wing voters about how cannabis legalization may align with their political values cannabis grow supplies. Anti-legalization groups may well have supported the current prohibition approach and more in- vestment in drug treatment and prevention. This option was not part of our MCDA policy options as we were primarily aiming to inform the de- bate around the cannabis referendum which was specifically concerned with the legal status of cannabis use and supply, not wider policy set- tings addressing cannabis harm under the current prohibition, such as increasing the level of funding of treatment and prevention. Third, MCDA is an instrumental group decision making tool that focuses on tangible outcomes of policy decisions. Moral views of cannabis use were found to play an important part in how people voted in the NZ cannabis referendum and likely influenced how stakeholders voted in the MCDA trade-offs. Yet, as outlined earlier in this paper, the purpose of MCDA is to facilitate group decision making concerning controversial policy issues by asking participants to consider tangible trade-offs in outcomes to reach pragmatic compromises. The closeness of the final NZ cannabis referendum result  illustrated both significant support for reform and concern about the specific reform proposal put forward for the referendum vote .

The CLCB most closely resembled the “strict market like tobacco ”option in our MCDA. Our MCDA results suggest a higher stakeholder support for two even more restrictive legal market options, “government monopoly ”and “not-for-profit ”trusts. According to the 2021 World Drug Report, it is estimated that over 200 million people have used cannabis globally, likely increasing amid the global COVID-19 pandemic . However, efforts to decriminalize, legalize, and reclassify the scheduling of these drugs are fast transforming the landscape of cannabis use and research. Despite the UN’s reclassification of cannabis and its derivatives, these drugs remain classified as schedule I by the US Drug Enforcement Administration together with other drugs such as heroin, and ecstasy . Moreover, the perceived decrease in the risks associated with cannabis use has contributed to its popularity and increased usage, already exacerbating a global health problem .

Increasing drug treatment capacity also received a low relative importance by the stakeholders

The longer timeframe of cannabis legalization in Uruguay has allowed more evaluation, utilizing neighboring countries as control groups, and has found only minimal impacts on adolescent use and perceived risk of use to date . Drawing on the extensive research literature of effective public health regulation of alcohol and tobacco markets , we assumed that more restrictive regulatory approaches, such as government monopoly, non-commercial supply and strict market regulation, are likely to be more effective at reducing the health and social harms of legal cannabis use than lightly regulated commercial markets. Proponents of cannabis legalization have argued that a legal cannabis market could reduce the overall harm of cannabis,rolling bench even if the total number of users increase, by improving the safety of legal cannabis products  and by reducing barriers related to help seeking for dependent users.

This may well be the case, but at the time of writing this article, we do not yet have the data, either from overseas jurisdictions or New Zealand, to support this argument. All of the legalization options in our MCDA model projected large reductions in cannabis arrests following legalization regardless of the strictness of the regulatory framework. This is based on the understanding that following legalization cannabis related arrests would be limited to underage use, illegal supply, public disorder, and drug driving. This assumption is supported by evidence from U.S. states that have legalized cannabis where substantial reductions in arrest rates for cannabis have been achieved. Drawing on official New Zealand Police apprehension statistics, we used a baseline figure of 10,500 arrests per year for cannabis under prohibition in New Zealand . Note, this number includes all situations where police have contact with cannabis offenders regardless of whether this results in a formal arrest, prosecution, or conviction. Criteria 3 –Reduce the size of the illegal market All the legalization options in our MCDA projected significant reductions in the illegal cannabis market, while not entirely eliminating the illegal trade.

Again, this reflects experience from legal cannabis jurisdictions in the U.S. and Canada where the illegal cannabis trade has been much reduced, but nonetheless has persisted . The NZ-DHI estimated the annual revenue of the illegal market for cannabis to be $548M based on aggregate cannabis consumption ebb and flow bench. The tax earnings figures in our MCDA assumed that the more heavily regulated legal market options are likely to impose higher excise rates and other taxes and hence collect more total tax revenue. Estimates of the magnitude of the economic benefits of a legal cannabis sector in New Zealand have varied. For example, an economic consultancy firm estimated the government revenues from cannabis legalization in New Zealand would be $191-$249M. The New Zealand Institute of Economic Research , projected annual tax revenues from legal cannabis sales in New Zealand of $490M  2020. Most recently, the economic consultants BERL has advised the New Zealand Ministry of Justice that a legal cannabis sector in New Zealand would generate $923M annually in taxation and licensing fees . Our projections are based on the actual tax earnings reported from legal cannabis sales in Colorado , which has a comparable population to New Zealand . It is also important to note these are estimates of gross tax income and public expenditure is required to implement, regulate and enforce legal cannabis markets .

The CUDIT-R  is one of the most widely used measures to assess and detect problematic cannabis use

First, while we incorporated extensive checks to prevent multiple registrations by one person, we relied on self-report regarding cannabis use both at the time of recruitment and at follow-up. Second, the outcome measures employed were fairly crude. Perhaps, in an environment where cannabis is legal, the variable number of days used cannabis in the past 30 might suffer from a ceiling effect if a substantial proportion of participants are using cannabis every day. Finally, while the trial was powered to detect a small effect, it is certainly possible that the intervention, if effective, would only ever have an impact that is very small; especially among heavy users of cannabis. Given that this is a low-cost intervention that can be distributed widely, having a very small impact is not necessarily a rule-out of the intervention’s utility. It just implies that a much larger sample would be needed to establish efficacy,vertical grow rack system perhaps across a wider range of cannabis users.

Participants were college students recruited to participate in an online survey from 7 countries  between February 2019 and March 2020 . In the present study, participants that reported consuming cannabis at least once in their lifetime and completed the CUDIT-R  were included in the psychometric analyses. Analyses examining correlations between the CUDIT-R and non-CUDIT-R measures were limited to 2402 students that reported cannabis consumption during the last 30 days . For the U.S., Canadian, England, and South African sites, students were recruited from psychology department pools and received research participation credits. In Argentina and Uruguay, students were recruited through online social networks, e-mail listings and flyers , and those who completed the survey were entered into a raffle for prizes. In Spain an email was sent to all the students of the university inviting them to participate in the research. The participants received 5 euros for completing the survey. Study procedures were approved by the institutional review boards at the participating universities.

However, limited research has tested the measurement invariance of the questionnaire across different countries. Thus,vertical rack grow a main aim of the present research was to test the measurement invariance of the CUDIT-R among college students from seven countries. The results showed that the measure was invariant at different levels  among the U.S., Canada, Argentina, Spain, and South African samples suggesting that the CUDIT-R is a suitable measure to compare cannabis-related problems among students from these five countries. Due to their low item endorsement, it was not possible to the test the invariance of the questionnaire in Uruguay and England. Future studies with a higher sample size of students from these two countries are required. In addition, measurement invariance of the questionnaire across males and females was explored. A previous study performed with a large sample of undergraduates from the U.S. found configural and metric invariance of the measure across gender groups . Our results extend previous findings, showing that the structure , the factor loadings  and the thresholds  were similar across a sample of males and females from different nationalities and languages.

Scalar invariance of the questionnaire across groups is relevant, as differences in the CUDIT-R scores across countries and gender groups can be interpreted as differences in problematic cannabis use, rather than merely artifacts of other processes, such as the interpretation of items . To this end, when mean comparisons of the CUDIT-R total score were examined, as it is usually found, males showed higher problematic cannabis use than females . We also found lower problematic cannabis use in the Spain and Argentina than in U.S., and also in Spain compared with the rest of the countries. These differences could be related to cannabis polices, as lower rates of CUDIT-R were found in countries in which the access to cannabis is more difficult . The present research also provided reliability evidence of the CUDIT-R scores, showing that both Cronbach’s alphas and ordinal omegas were higher than the standard cut-off of 0.70, and similar to those found in previous studies that have explored the unidimensional structure of the questionnaire . Convergent validity evidence was also provided in five countries, as the CUDIT-R showed large correlations in magnitude with the B-MACQ. The magnitude of these associations was similar to that found in previous studies with undergraduates from the U.S. , suggesting that the Spanish version provided similar convergent validity evidence with the B-MACQ as the English version. Finally, criterion validity evidence of the CUDIT-R scores was provided using different measures of cannabis consumption and cannabis-related motives.

Examinations of cannabinoids as treatment strategies for CUD have so far been restricted to adult populations

This is an extremely exciting time in the domain of adolescent and emerging adult prevention and intervention work for cannabis use and related CUD. At present, we are coming out from an era with limited prevention and treatment intervention options. To that end, the past few decades have been demarcated by addiction paradigms and related prevention and intervention approaches that were solely developed for and examined with adults. On that background, it is highly promising that the field is increasingly recognizing adolescence and emerging adulthood as a distinct neurodevelopmental period with its own unique needs and challenges that are also mirrored in the needs and challenges related to cannabis use . This review represents a comprehensive overview of how exciting advances in the domain of emergent cannabinoid treatment strategies may open a critical and important window for the abatement of youths’ struggles with cannabis.

With the increase in cannabis use observed throughout the pandemic , these steps could not be more timely.These studies have yielded promising findings regarding FAAH inhibitors and CBD,indoor cannabis grow system but large efficacy trials are still needed to replicate the first findings. The optimal duration of treatment with cannabinoid substitution treatment has also not yet been established and needs to be systematically investigated together with risk of relapse after cannabinoid treatment has been discontinued. This is of particular importance, because of the high price of some of the cannabinoid agonist compounds recently released to the market. With no studies to date having examined the potential of cannabinoid treatment in youth with CUD, the next critical steps include examining the impact of these novel intervention approaches  in youth samples, in order to examine potential effects and side effects, and determine which elements in the approach are driving specific changes in youth behavior and brain.

To this end, translational approaches integrating examinations with behavioral, neurocognitive, and neuro imaging  can be particularly useful in dis-aggregating potential impact and neural- as well as behavioral- mechanisms of change in this important population . Furthermore, examinations of potential gender differences are needed – both in youth and adult samples. Fewer females use cannabis, but cannabis use is linked to more health problems in young females compared to males . However, research in females and potential gender differences is lacking in cannabis research in general , including research on cannabinoid treatment,cannabis grow set up where previous studies have either examined 100 % males or mainly males. So far, no studies have examined potential gender differences in effects of cannabinoid treatment . Together, this work represents critical next steps in the important pathway toward improving the lives of young people struggling with CUD. In the longer run, once tolerability and safety of cannabinoid treatment strategies have been established in youth, more specific target groups and treatment strategies could be further explored. For example, the therapeutic effects of pharmacological treatment with CBD  have the potential to guide the definition of CUD subgroups that might in particular benefit from this treatment strategy.

Since THC-based compounds seem rather efficient in reducing withdrawal symptoms, another approach might be to examine the efficacy of administering both THC and CBD in the beginning of treatment and then gradually phase out to end with CBD monotherapy. However, due to the discussed risks and concerns associated with THC administration, this approach requires careful ethical and clinical considerations.  In recent years, several countries have modified their policies regarding use of cannabis, with changes including allowing cannabis use for medical purposes, decriminalization, or legalization for recreational use . Canada is one of the countries that has now legalized cannabis for recreational use, which has led to increased availability and prevalence of use . While policies have been made more liberal, it is still important to recognize that cannabis use has health and psychosocial risks . Further, the majority of risky cannabis users, including those meeting criteria for cannabis dependence, will never seek treatment if they become concerned about their use , often because of stigma or embarrassment – and this is unlikely to change with legalization .

Cannabis clients often shared the same lobbyists/agencies

These 14 funders were exclusively cannabis affiliates or lobbying agencies with known cannabis industry connections: Liv Well, Buddy Boy, Dixie Brands, Gobi Labs, Gold Dome Access, Lightshade, Medicine Man, MedPharm Holdings, Native Roots, Natural Selections, TEQ Analytic Solutions, The Green Solution, Vicente Sederberg, and Wolf Public Affairs. All but Gobi Labs shared professional ties: John Fritzel was an owner of both Lightshade and Buddy Boy,  and Andy Williams was the president of both Medicine Man and MedPharm Holdings . Representatives from Lightshade, LivWell, Native Roots, Vicente Sederberg, Medicine Man, MedPharm Buddy Boy, Dixie Brands, and Columbia Care were board members or donors for the Cannabis Trade Federation. Leadership from Medicine Man, Med- Pharm Holdings, Native Roots, Dixie Brands, TEQ Analytical Solutions, Vicente Sederberg and the chairman of the Marijuana Industry Group all sat on the Board of Directors for Colorado Leads, an alliance of cannabis businesses. Lobbying records also indicated that Gold Dome Access rep- resented the Marijuana Industry Group, Wolf Public Affairs represented Vicente Sederberg, mobile grow system and David Nagel lobbied for both TEQ Analytical Solutions and Natural Selections.

Cannabis industry affiliates paid lobbyists to monitor amend, sup- port, or oppose 367 bills between fiscal years 2010–2021. Of these bills, 220  mentioned the words cannabis, marijuana, or hemp, and dealt with issues related to licensing and physical requirements for cannabis businesses, biomedical research, public safety, product standards, and public education. Examples include support for HB16–1373, which allowed primary caregivers to administer medical cannabis to K- 12 public school students and opposition of HB15–1298, which would have prohibited cannabis retailers from advertising to pregnant women and required signage warning pregnant women about the potential risks caused by cannabis use. Cannabis industry affiliates with an out-of-state address spent $802,983 between fiscal years 2010–2021 . Given that some cannabis businesses are multistate operations with locations in Colorado and others use in-state PO boxes, this proportion is likely an underestimate. Immediately following adult-use legalization in November 2012 and prior to the creation of the recreational sales market in January 2014, the Washington D.C. based nonprofit Marijuana Policy Project dramatically increased its expenditures in Colorado. The proportion of out-of-state lobbying expenditures increased from 5.5% of lobbying expenditures in fiscal years 2010–2015 to 12.6% in fiscal years 2016–2021 . California-based cannabis organizations lobbying in Colorado increased from one business spending $14,492 in 2017 to five spending $153,220 in 2020.

One cannabis affiliated organization each from Ontario , New York , and Oregon  lobbied in Colorado, as well as two from Washington D.C. . HB1076 removed exemptions to clean indoor air policies and added e-cigarette use to the definition of smoking and was initially op- posed by tobacco interests including Reynolds American and the Inter- national Premium Cigar and Pipe Association,cannabis grow supplies as well as the cannabis affiliate Renaissance Solutions. Renaissance Solutions changed its position from opposing to monitoring the bill two days after the passage of an amendment that exempted cannabis retailers from the Colorado clean indoor air act. Altria Client Services , Smoker Friendly, the Cannabis Business Alliance, the Colorado Gaming Association, the Colorado Petroleum Marketers Association, and the Medical Marijuana Industry Association had all sought to amend the bill. Lobbyists employed by cannabis affiliates represented both that industry and other industries. Although some lobbyists exclusively rep- resented cannabis affiliates , others lobbied for cannabis and the tobacco, alcohol, pharmaceutical, and gaming industries.

This shared representation may have allowed opportunities for inter-industry alliances. Axiom Strategies represented cannabis affiliates including the Medical Marijuana Industry Group, the Colorado Cannabis Chamber of Commerce, and Folium Biosciences in addition to the International Premium Cigar and Pipe Association, Altria Client Services, Reynolds American, Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of Colorado, Alkermes  and Isle of Capri Casinos. Axiom Strategies’ largest client was HCA Healthcare. Margaret-Mary “Peggi ”O’Keefe concurrently represented the Cannabis Business Alliance, the Colorado Cannabis Manufacturers Association, Altria Client Services, The Colorado Gaming Association, the Generic Pharmaceutical Association, and Mylan . Capitol Focus, LLC represented Gold Dome Access, the Marijuana Industry Group, the Colorado Gaming Association, Genetech, Glaxosmithkline, Johnson and Johnson, The Wine Institute, The Wine and Spirit Wholesalers of Colorado, the Smoke Free Alternative Trade Association, and JUUL Labs.

The airborne particles hit the adhesive tape and are retained

The trap is equipped with a slit for air intake. The air is suctioned by a motor and intercepted by a rotating drum fitted with a belt made of Melinex, coated with adhesivesilicone.The tape is cut into daily segments weekly and mounted on slides with glycerogelatin and fuchsin, protected with coverslips and, after a rest period,observed under an optical microscope for analysis. In this study,four longitudinal transects were read with an immersion 50× optical zoom lens. The surface area read was more than 10% of the total sampling area, allowing us to identify the different pollen types and carry out the corresponding count .The Cannabis pollen grain is a medium-sized monad, 20–30 μ min diameter,spheroidal, isopolar and trizonoporate. The pores have an annulus,and the in tine forms an oncus under the pore. Under an optical microscope,the ornamentation of the exine is psilate . Data on days with an intrusion of African air masses in Spain have been obtained from the Spanish Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge.

Information about African dust out breaks reaching the Iberian Peninsula is relevant to associate African Cannabis pollen with northwards air masses from Africa.The methodology used to identify these episodes is available in the document “Establishing guidelines for the demonstration and subtraction of exceedances attributable to natural sources under Directive 2008/50/ECon ambient air quality and cleaner air for Europe” . Daily meteorological situations were identified, cannabis grow system and air mass back trajectories were obtained with HYSPLIT. The results were then validated by studying the synoptic maps of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, Aerosol Index Maps reflecting the Ozone Monitoring Instrument indirect measurement and daily results from SKIRON, the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre and the Navy Aerosol Analysis and Prediction System .This work has used MITECO reports available from 2009 to 2020. For the period 2004 to 2008, the African dust intrusion data were taken from Negral Álvarez , and for the years 2002 and 2003, the NAAPs aerosol maps were consulted. No NAAPs maps were available for 1999, so the arrival of African dust intrusions was estimated using the back trajectories obtained with HYSPLIT. The presence of Cannabis pollen in the bioaerosol of the Region of Murcia was sporadic until 2017.

Up to that time, it was considered aminority pollen type in our region and was not a part of the pollen calendar. Although up to 21 pollen grains/m3 could be found in the air of Cartagena before 2017, almost half of it was collected on a single day, and its presence was concentrated on specific days. As an example, the peak day in 2002, 04/26/2002, was of local/regional origin . However, we have verified that since2017, a systematic count that could be due to autochthonous flowering has occurred in Cartagena, Murcia and Lorca. This asseveration is supported by the dismantling of illegal Cannabis crops in the Region of Murcia over the last five years. Alvarez et al.  warned about changes in Cannabis consumption in Spain, marijuana grow system where “the rise of large-scale Cannabis plantations in the Spanish Mediterranean coast has been increasingly replacing Moroccan hashish imports.” Likewise, the expansion of small scale cultivation in Spain is assumed to be taken place . In this context, the control of Cannabis pollen broadens the scope of Aerobiology with a new application for public health/law professionals. These professionals could be interested in the Cannabis MPS. Depending on the year, it can start at any time from the beginning to the end of June and last until the first days of August or even September, with a variation of13 days in Cartagena, 16 days in Murcia and 32 days in Lorca . Althoug hour MPS is not the standard definition in which 95% of the population is retained, discarding the 5% at the tails , Jato et al. argued that the MPS should be defined according to the purpose of the research.

The purpose of our research was to identify the origin of the Cannabis pollen grains, regardless of the concentrations. Nevertheless, the option to work with the standard MPS was assessed. This idea was discarded because it would mean leaving out high concentration days,even the peak day, e.g., in Lorca in 2018. This behaviour is not expected for plants spread naturally in the area of study.The duration of the MPS in the Region of Murcia is much shorter than that defined for areas where there is widespread cultivation of this plant,like Tetouan. There, the duration of the MPS is in the range of 127to 172 days, and it constitutes a major pollen type. In Islamabad, Pakistan, it is the most important allergen from July to September .The concentrations registered in the three cities of the Region of Murcia increased from 2017 to 2020, with differences among the mean values and a positive trend in the evolution of the AP In . In terms of the consequences for allergy sufferers, the AP In was probably not high enough to cause problems for the general population during the years of the study.

Five significant indirect effects of anxious-depressive symptoms were discriminated on harmful cannabis use

In the mediation model a non-significant total-effect was demonstrated between anxious-depressive symptoms and cannabis use frequency. Therefore, indirect effects were not estimated on this relationship. Existing findings reported significant, positive and weak associations between anxious-depressive symptoms and cannabis use . However, the studies in the literature largely vary how they measure cannabis use and which confounding variables they control for. These can influence the association between cannabis use and anxious-depressive symptoms .These indirect effects can be categorized into three groups based on the similarities in the mediational mechanisms between them. First, higher levels of anxious-depressive symptoms were associated with lower levels of CRSE and CPBS which subsequently contributed to higher levels of harmful cannabis use. In line with these single mediation pathways, previous studies also reported negative relationships between cannabis use outcomes and CRSE, and between cannabis use outcomes and CPBS .

However, to the best of the Authors’ knowledge, less empirical evidence is available on the links between anxious-depressive symptoms and CRSE, and between anxious depressive symptoms and CPBS. This is the first time that the mediating effects of CRSE and CPBS were tested and supported between anxious-depressive symptoms and outcomes of cannabis use. The single mediation pathway via CRSE matches and extends previous gambling-related findings which suggested the mediating role of refusal self-efficacy on the relationship between depressive symptoms and negative gambling outcomes . The single mediation pathway via CPBS shows similarities with previous studies, which demonstrated mediating effects via APBS between anxious-depressive symptoms and alcohol use outcomes . These single mediation pathways might suggest that limited self-regulation capacities that are related to distressful and negative affective states can account for the negative links of anxious-depressive symptoms with CRSE and CPBS . Alternatively,outdoor cannabis grow it might be possible that those with more harmful cannabis use patterns have more negative self-views on their ability to successfully control and regulate their behavior when experiencing distressful and negative affective states . However, these assumptions should be interpreted cautiously as the present study did not test these explanations. Moreover, double-mediation pathways indicated that anxious-depressive symptoms had a positive effect on reflection which in turn was positively associated with CPBS and CRSE which subsequently contributed to lower levels of harmful cannabis use.

Previous studies also reported that higher levels of depressive symptoms are associated with increased levels of reflection, in addition to findings showing that CPBS are positively correlated with more adaptive ER strategies and negatively with outcomes of cannabis use . Although existing literature findings also reported negative relationships between cannabis use outcomes and CRSE , they did not investigate the associations between CRSE and ER processes. To the best of the Authors’ knowledge, this is the first time that the double mediating effects via reflection and CPBS as well as via reflection and CRSE were supported between anxious-depressive symptoms and outcomes of cannabis use. The double-mediation pathway via reflection and CPBS is in line with previous findings which suggested the mediating function of APBS on the effects of adaptive ER on alcohol use outcomes . However,cannabis grow equipment the present sequential mediating effect might contribute to broaden the existing knowledge on the link between ER and protective behavioral strategies by testing for cannabis use for the first time and by controlling for the effects of anxious-depressive symptoms and different rumination dimensions in the mediation model.

In the context of refusal self-efficacy, previous studies reported that difficulties in ER are inversely related to DRSE . Therefore, the double-mediating effect via reflection and refusal self-efficacy was not only tested and supported for the first time for cannabis use, but it also provides new empirical data on the associations of substance use refusal self-efficacy with more adaptive ER processes and with rumination. A possible  explanation for these double mediating effects can be that some elements of reflection indicate a more active, problem- and goal-focused orientation which might lead to a more adaptive and pre-planned regulation of cannabis use. Finally, in a double mediation pathway, higher levels of anxious-depressive symptoms were associated with increased rates of NU which in turn had a negative effect on CRSE which subsequently contributed to less harmful cannabis use.

This trend was moderately observed in the Pre-Planting assessment being almost diluted at Post-Emergence

Barbour et al.  finally proposed the inverse of the variance  as an indicator of precision; in this study, we considered a threshold level of “1” as the minimal precision accepted for a reliable sampling. Only dominance of rapeseed in Winter was considered not reliable , being considered with restrictions in the further analysis. The percentage of soil surface covered by straw resulting from the winter crops, as well as crop stubble dry mass, is shown in Figure 1. There was a direct relationship between the volume of dry mass produced by each crop/management and the respective the percentage of soil covered by this stubble On the other hand, there were only weak relationships both between the percentage of soil covered and the number of plants of weed species, and between soil covered and dry mass of weeds, which were not significant. The number of weed individuals and dry mass of weeds per area was lower in areas planted with any oilseed crop compared to fallow areas, for all seasons,cannabis grow tray except dry mass of weeds in crambe at pre-planting . In Winter , about 27 plants∙m−2 were observed as average of the winter crops while 108 plants∙m−2 were observed at the fallow area, immediately after oilseed crops harvest.

The same was observed for dry mass, where 30 g∙m−2 were observed in the oilseed crop areas against 83 g∙m−2 at the fallow area. This translated to about 25% and 36% of the infestation, respectively for number of weed individuals and dry mass accumulated, for areas planted with oilseed crops compared to areas under fallow . At the pre-planting of soybean , infestation was kept at low levels in areas previously planted with radish and rapeseed, but crambe straw failed to suppress weeds at the same level. While 12 and 21 plants∙m−2 were observed for areas previously planted with radish and rapeseed, respectively, at the area with crambe 32 plants∙m−2 were reported, against 71 plants∙m−2 at the fallow area. Dry mass presented similar behavior, except for rapeseed, where plants emerged but did not grow at the same rate of the ones observed at radish and crambe areas . All oilseed crops were able to inhibit weeds emergence and establishment during winter, when crops were present, but at the pre-planting crambe did not perform well. This may be due to two reasons: 1 both soil covered and crop dry mass accumulated at the post-harvest of oilseed crops were smaller for crambe compared to radish or rapeseed, in part because this crop has shorter cycle thus being harvested about 60 days in advance , vertical grow system and 2 the allelopathic effect of radish and rapeseed in suppressing weeds may be more pronounced than crambe. In fact, Uygur et al.  reported that extracts of radish completely inhibited the germination of 4 crop plants and 11 weed species.

Although radish accumulate greater dry mass than crambe , its ability to suppress weeds  was higher than what would be attributed to the differential dry mass accumulation, being attributed to the allelopathic effect of radish, as previously reported. At post-emergence of soybean , there was still effects of the winter management on the level of weeds infestation, where areas previously planted with oilseed crops were always less infested than the area under fallow, and similar among them in terms of number of weed individuals per area. Dry mass of weeds, however, differed not only from the fallow but also among oilseed crops . Weed dry mass was about 13, 37 and 46 g∙m−2 , respectively at areas previously planted with rapeseed, radish and crambe. Although weed dry mass accumulation was not pronounced at the fallow area by the time of evaluation-probably due to the coupled effect of soybean shading and glyphosate application, the high number of individuals at this treatment indicated that weeds were smaller than the observed at the areas under oilseed crops, but the latent infestation was high. The season-pooled analysis  showed that radish and rapeseed performed better than crambe in inhibiting the occurrence of weed species, and winter fallow should not be adopted in areas where soybeans are to be cropped. Although infestation at the area with crambe was higher, this crop was still able to suppress in more than 50% the occurrence of weeds compared to fallow, which also resulted in smaller weed dry mass per area . When number of weeds and its respective dry mass are compared in Pre-Planting  and PostEmergence  of rapeseed, it is possible to infer that weeds were smaller compared to the ones present at the other areas, thus with delayed emergence. This delayed emergence of weeds in rapeseed is most probably a consequence of the time needed for seeds forced to a quiescent or dormant state to restart their metabolism and allow germination .

Greater water retention by pine bark early in the experiment was likely due to initial hydrophobicity common in sphagnum peat moss

The amount of water held by peat moss can be 15 to 20 times its own weight, depending on peat moss type . By week 4, water retention was equal or greater in peat moss compared to pine bark across both experiments. Greater water retention by pine bark early in the experiment was likely due to initial hydrophobicity common in sphagnum peat moss. As the experiment progressed over time with daily irrigation events, this initial hydrophobicity was overcome and peat moss retained a greater volume of water compared to pine bark. The layer of mulch within the round Buchner funnels of this experiment was disc-shaped with a height of 2.5 cm, vertical grow system diameter of 13.1 cm, and volume of 342 cm3 . Thus volumetric water content  in each mulch layer could be calculated for the volumes of water retained listed in Table 3. Pine bark and peat moss VWC ranged from 0.40 to 0.50 cm∙cm−1 at hour 0 throughout the two experiments, and decreased to 0.2 to 0.4 cm∙cm−1 by hour 24. In contrast, VWC in rice hulls never exceed 0.20 cm∙cm−1 at hour 0 and declined to less than 0.10 cm∙cm−1 by hour 24 in the experiment.

O’Meara et al.  used hydrangea  and gardenia  in a pine bark substrate to show that the ability of plants to extract water from a soilless substrate is species-dependent, and for these two species transpiration declined at VWC of 0.20 to 0.28 cm∙cm−1 and slowed to near zeroonce VWC dropped below 0.12 to 0.16 cm∙cm−1 . Rice hulls do not exclude enough light at depths of 2.5 cm to prevent bitter cress or creeping wood sorrel germination. The amount of PAR penetrating rice hulls from 0.6 to 2.5 cm averaged 1.3 µmol∙m−2 ∙sec−1 . While flexuous bitter cress germination declined when PAR dropped below 41.3 µmol∙m−2 ∙sec−1 , germination still occurred in complete darkness. Creeping wood sorrel had 92% germination across all light levels. Numbers and shoot fresh weights of both species decreased with increasing rice hull depth when seed were placed beneath the mulch layer. The mechanism of this control is not likely due to light reduction or light exclusion, especially with creeping wood sorrel. It is widely accepted that germination rate of seed decreases with increasing burial depth . Decreasing numbers and shoot fresh weights with increasing rice hull depth in our study was likely a function of burial depth as well.

A meta-analysis of seedling recruitment in natural grasslands found that plant litter up to 500 g∙m−2 improved seedling recruitment, cannabis grow equipment while greater litter amounts  inhibited seedling recruitment . Teasdale and Mohler  showed a similar response in germination of four weed species beneath various mulch materials over a silt loam soil. The mass of rice hulls applied in our experiment was 46 g at a depth of 2.5 cm in a 15 cm diameter container, resulting in an application equivalent to 2523 g∙m−2 . Cumulative germination and shoot fresh weights of the flexuous bitter cress and creeping wood sorrel in our experiment were reduced at 1.3 and 2.5 cm depths , but not reduced at 0.6 cm depth . Flexuous bitter cress and creeping wood sorrel establishment beneath rice hull mulch seem to follow the general rule of seedling establishment beneath litter proposed by Loydi et al. . Altland and Krause  speculated that gaps in the mulch barrier common with applications of 0.6 cm rice hulls were responsible for greater establishment of liverwort and bitter cress; however, it is likely that lack of rice hull mass also contributes to poor control. Flexuous bitter cress cumulative numbers that established from beneath the 2.5 cm rice hull layer was reduced 68% relative to the non-mulched control.

Likewise, cumulative shoot fresh weights of these bitter cress were reduced 78% compared to the nonmulched control. In contrast, creeping wood sorrel numbers and shoot fresh weight from beneath 2.5 cm rice hulls was reduced 88% and 94%, respectively, compared to non-mulched controls. Flexuous bitter cress seed used in this study were 0.9 ± 0.13 mm long and 0.6 ± 0.06 mm wide , while creeping wood sorrel were larger with length of 1.4 ± 0.14 mm and width of 1.0 ± 0.05 mm . Others have shown decreasing sensitivity to mulch depth with larger seed Thus it was somewhat surprising that the larger seed of creeping wood sorrel were more affected by burial depth than the smaller-seeded bitter cress. Rice hulls retain less water than pine bark or peat moss, and this seems to be the primary mechanism by which rice hulls provide weed control when seeds are applied to the mulch surface. Weed seed can germinate in soils with water potential as low as −1.5 MPa, as summarized by Bullied et al. .

Physical control involves use of mechanical harvesting and hydrologic drawdown

Common water hyacinth remains the oldest and most widely spread invasive aquatic plant in Louisiana as evidenced by Figures 4-6. Alligator weed infestation in 41 HUC of Louisiana made it the highest among all other species. Recently, giant Salvinia aggressive nature is causing a widespread in the State waterways within the short time of introduction. Several measures developed to manage the aquatic invasive plants by the state include: chemical, physical and biological control. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries performs aquatic vegetation control through the use of 2, 4-D applications against water hyacinth, followed by fluridone to control hydrilla, and combinations of glyphosate and diquat on common Salvinia as a form of chemical control . For biological control of giant Salvinia in Louisiana, USDA APHIS, LDWF, and LSU AgCenter are working together to develop effective Cyrtobagous salviniae that can control the growth of Salvinia molesta throughout the entire season of the year . USDA APHIS Center for Plant Health Science and Technology laboratories will supply biological control agents. Tests began in June 2002 at Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve and have since been a major control of giant Salvinia.

Mechanical harvesting typically uses equipment to remove small populations of nuisance plants while hydrological drawdown has been used on water hyacinth at Lake Henderson. Recent innovation in the management of invasive aquatic plants is the integrated pest management , cannabis grow tray an approach correct identification of the invasive or nuisance plants, identifying desired vegetation to achieve fish and wildlife habitat goals, establishing tolerable levels of any single plant species, including target nuisance plants, making decisions based on site-specific information, the use of the ecosystem, watershed, and cost-benefit perspectives to determine long-term management strategies, developing an on-going system of integrated control methods that include mechanical, cultural, biological, and chemical treatments as needed, educating local managers and the public about the importance of protecting water resources from invasive weeds to maintain healthy water quality and fish and wildlife habitat assessing results of invasive weed control programs and re-evaluating management options .

The continuous spread of invasive aquatic plants in Louisiana could be due to favorable weather conditions, excessive nutrients runoff from agricultural practices, reduction of government allocated funds, and uncooperative human community. It is very difficult to eradicate an invasive species once it has been established in a particular location. The current State of Louisiana statewide management plan has done little in the control of the major notorious aquatic plant invaders such as giant Salvinia and water hyacinth. Although, several biological, chemical and mechanical management controls are being implemented yearly, there is a need for interagency collaboration, establishment of efficient State database, and stricter laws on voluntary anthropogenic activities such as sales of invasive weeds as ornamental plants and smuggling of unwanted species through the waterways into the states. The state government should place emphasis and fund universities and organizations studying control of invasive aquatic plants as much as water quality funding because if the surface waters can be rid of the plants it will directly improve the standard qualities of the coastal Louisiana surface waters. In the course of this research, there are some discrepancies between species listed as aquatic invasive plants from different agencies.

Louisiana department of wildlife and fishes needs an accessible database for the State. Laws pertaining to importation and sale of invasive plant through nursery and garden sales should be strengthened and enforced. Federal and State border personnel should inspect foreign arriving vessels, cargo, and cruise ship passengers at all Louisiana maritime docks for exotic plants. Above all, vertical grow systems for sale more money should be invested in the research of eradication and controls of invasive aquatic plants. Floors of persimmon orchards in South Korea are managed in general with growing various weeds which are periodically mowed or sprayed with herbicides to prevent their excessive growth. The weeds have been used as one of the most important sources to improve the organic matter supply into the soil of the orchards. When the weeds were mowed in an orchard throughout a year, DM produced per ha reached to 15 ton but they compete with crops for nutrients from the soil . Weeds can take up 232 kg N, 42 kg P, and 267 kg K per ha during the year in pear orchard of South Korea . Once the residues from cover crops are deposited on the soil surface, inorganic nutrients contained in the residues are released to the soil throughout the decomposition, increasing their availability, and they may be taken up by succeeding crops.