Our faculty's body of research includes: a marijuana administration laboratory to investigate various determinants of marijuana use and its effects; interventions to modify drug use in prisoners on release; investigating ways to address smoking in substance treatment programs; longitudinal studies on the developmental course of substance use throughout adolescence; medications for adolescents with comorbid cannabis and alcohol use; and dissemination/implementation of research findings.

Behavioral economics plays a substantial role in our drug use portfolio. BSS’s portfolio on drug use and HIV includes research on drug use and HIV prevention in Latino adolescents, the syndemics of drug use with alcohol use and HIV risk in developing countries, drug and alcohol use in sexual minorities, and using new technologies to study and intervene in HIV risk behavior in substance users. Significant work has focused on comorbidity, particularly the comorbidity of alcohol and cannabis use and the comorbidity of affective disorders with cannabis use.