Evaluating Medical Marijuana Dispensary Policies: Spatial Methods for the Study of Environmentally-Based Interventions

This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Freisthler, B., Kepple, N.J., Simms, R., & Martin, S. (2013). Evaluating Medical Marijuana Dispensary Policies: Spatial Methods for the Study of Environmentally-Based Interventions. American Journal of Community Psychology, 51(1-2), 278-288. doi:10.1007/s10464-012-9542-6, which has been published in final form at http://doi.org/10.1007/s10464-012-9542-6. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving.In 1996, California was the first state to pass a Compassionate Use Act allowing for the legal use of marijuana for medical purposes. Here we review several current policy and land use environmental interventions designed to limit problems related to the influx of medical marijuana dispensaries across California cities. Then we discuss the special challenges, solutions, and techniques used for studying the effects of these place-based policies. Finally, we present some of the advanced spatial analytic techniques that can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of environmental interventions, such as those related to reducing problems associated with the proliferation of medical marijuana dispensaries. Further, using data from a premise survey of all the dispensaries in Sacramento, this study will examine what characteristics and practices of these dispensaries are related to crime within varying distances from the dispensaries (e.g., 100, 250, 500, and 1000 feet). We find that some security measures, such as security cameras and having a door man outside, implemented by medical marijuana dispensary owners might be effective at reducing crime within the immediate vicinity of the dispensaries

"It was like dancing on a grave": Eviction and Displacement in Los Angeles 1994-1999

Little is understood about displacement in urban contexts. Some of the difficulties that have impeded previous research are methodological as the data necessary for displacement research tends to be speculative, prohibitively expensive, or difficult to obtain. The greater problem I argue is conceptual. Outside of Neil Smith's rent gap hypothesis or the philosophy of property rights, there is little theoretical ground that explains urban displacement or facilitates analysis. Within the literature on urban change, where displacement would seem to have a strong theoretical foundation, displacement tends to exist uncomfortably between a range of theories from the neoclassicist's preference for atomized rational choice, the Chicago School's tenacious equilibrium mechanisms, and most recently, a version of demographic invasion based in economic restructuring. This research on evictions in Los Angeles seeks to challenge these conceptual and empirical shortcomings. Through a spatial pattern analysis of over 70,000 geographically referenced evictions, four distinct geographies of displacement are shown to have existed between 1994 and 1999 in Los Angeles including Downtown, Hollywood, Koreatown, and South Los Angeles. Logged transformations of eviction rates in the 381 census tracts comprising the area of study are furthermore regressed to three factors for each of the six years of the study. Results provide evidence that two of these factors are statistically correlated with eviction rates. The first factor is negatively correlated with eviction rates and describes deterrence to eviction based on relative affluence, educational attainment, and racial segregation in the form of high proportions of whites relative to other racial groups. The second expresses investment in desirable locations through average property sales and nonfamily households and is positively correlated with eviction rates. Taken together, the spatial pattern and spatial regression analyses confirm that evictions are socio-spatial phenomena forming three types of displacement in Los Angeles: (1) poverty- and race-related; (2) investment-related; and (3) a combination of poverty-, race-, and investment-related displacement. The four geographies of displacement are furthermore investigated using exploratory data analysis and archival methods to uncover the specific role that property owners played in each. The results of this research demonstrate that gentrification only partially explains one of the four displacement geographies while the other three are non- or pre-gentrifying contexts more appropriately described through growth machine strategies, uneven development, negative spillover effects, and financial restructuring. The dissertation ends with a call for a number of policy recommendations including a right to counsel in eviction cases and increased tenant organization

Lead isotopic compositions in the EPICA Dome C ice core and Southern Hemisphere Potential Source Areas

A record of Pb isotopic compositions and Pb and Ba concentrations are presented for the EPICA Dome C ice core covering the past 220 ky, indicating the characteristics of dust and volcanic Pb deposition in central East Antarctica. Lead isotopic compositions are also reported in a suite of soil and loess samples from the Southern Hemisphere (Australia, Southern Africa, Southern South America, New Zealand, Antarctica) in order to evaluate the provenance of dust present in Antarctic ice. Lead isotopic compositions in Dome C ice support the contention that Southern South America was an important source of dust in Antarctica during the last two glacial maxima, and furthermore suggest occasional dust contributions from local Antarctic sources. The isotopic signature of Pb in Antarctic ice is altered by the presence of volcanic Pb, inhibiting the evaluation of glacial-interglacial changes in dust sources and the evaluation of Australia as a source of dust to Antarctica. Consequently, an accurate evaluation of the predominant source(s) of Antarctic dust can only be obtained from glacial maxima, when dust-Pb concentrations were greatest. These data confirm that volcanic Pb is present throughout Antarctica and is emitted in a physical phase that is free from Ba, while dust Pb is transported within a matrix containing Ba and other crustal elements