ABSTRACT
Historically, social groups have developed norms for the consumption of such ubiquitous substances as tobacco and alcohol (Schmidt & Room, 1999), in part because of health problems associated with tobacco and alcohol use (Bacon, 1951). A multinational study showed that the misuse of alcohol contributes to about 4% of total mortality and 4 to 5% of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) (Rehm et al., 2009). Tobacco smoking has been shown to be a major predictor of lung cancer, COPD, and hypertension (Hackshaw, Law, & Wald, 1997), and second-hand smoking accounts for close to 1% of DALYs, with the majority of the impact consisting of lower respiratory infections in children (Jaakola, Oberg, Woodward, Peruga, & Pruss-Uston, 2011). Further, long-term cannabis use is associated with increased prevalence of addiction, reduced memory performance, and motor vehicle accidents (Filbey, McQueeny, DeWitt, & Mishra, 2015; Schuermeyer et al., 2015). In this context, preventing deleterious use of these substances has been a primary public health goal and an important subject of study for the behavioral sciences, including psychology.
