Background and aimsLittle is known about how cannabis use over the life-course relates to harms in adulthood.The present study aimed to identify trajectories of cannabis use from adolescence to adulthood and examine both the predictors of these trajectories and adverse adult outcomes associated with those trajectories. Design A latent trajectory analysis of a longitudinal birth cohort (from birth to age 35 years). Setting and participants General community sample (n = 1065) from New Zealand. Measurement Annual frequency of cannabis use (ages 15-35 years); childhood family and individual characteristics (birth to age 16 years); measures of adult outcomes (substance use disorders, ages 30-35 years; mental health disorders, ages 30-35 years; socio-economic outcomes at age 35 years; social/family outcomes at age 35 years). Findings A six-class solution was the best fit to the data. Individuals assigned to trajectories with higher levels of cannabis use were more likely to have experienced adverse childhood family and individual circumstances. Membership of trajectories with higher levels of use was associated with increased risk of adverse outcomes at ages 30-35 years. Adjustment of these associations for the childhood family and individual predictors largely did not reduce the magnitude of the associations. Conclusions In New Zealand, long-term frequent cannabis use, or transition to such use, appears to be robustly associated with diverse harms in adulthood. 12]. This progression also relates to multiple individual and environmental factors, including parental factors, peer influences and personality attributes [8,10,11,13,14]. Frequent cannabis use peaks by late adolescence to early adulthood [5,15] before tapering off in early adulthood [16,17] and becoming uncommon in old age [18]. Most people who are exposed to cannabis do not become regular or dependent users. However, a substantial minority of people exposed to cannabis will develop persisting heavy use into mid-adulthood [16].Longitudinal studies have shown that long-term heavy cannabis use is associated with a range of adverse outcomes. These include dependence on the drug, poorer education and work outcomes [19][20][21][22][23], impaired cognitive functioning [16,24], structural and functional brain changes [25] and higher rates of other substance disorders and mental disorders [15,26,27] including psychosis [28].

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In Nepal, many rural households need access to public forest resources to complement private resources for food and livestock production. However, current forest policies are largely directed at Environmental protection. The first part of this study identified the effect of current forest policy on livestock production using survey data from 259 households in three Nepal hill districts. The second part used a forestry-agriculture integrated model to examine alternative land use policies that could increase household livestock holdings and income while maintaining the environmental services of the community forest. The results show that current forest policies contributed to reductions in potential household livestock holdings by 34% for goats, 30% for cattle and 27% for buffalo. This exacerbated problems of farm fertility and food shortages in vulnerable and poor households. Modeling of alternative policy scenarios indicates that livestock holdings and income could both be increased for most households in communities practicing agroforestry while still maintaining environmental protection. The increase could be highest for the poorest households. Finally, the article discusses potential implications of new environmental policies on local food security and sustainability in the country.

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Nepal has a long history of returning public forests to local people as part of its community forestry programme. In principle the community forestry programme is designed to address both environmental quality and poverty alleviation. However, concern has been expressed that forest policies emphasise environmental conservation, and that this has a detrimental impact on the use of community forests in rural Nepal where households require access to public forest products to sustain livelihoods. To study the effect of government policies on forest use, an economic model of a typical small community of economically heterogeneous households in Nepal was developed. The model incorporates a link between private agriculture and public forest resources, and uses this link to assess the socioeconomic impacts of forest policies on the use of public forests. Socioeconomic impacts were measured in terms of household income, employment and income inequality. The results show that some forest policies have a negative economic impact, and the impacts are more serious than those reported by other studies. This study shows that existing forest policies reduce household income and employment, and widen income inequalities within communities, compared to alternative policies. Certain forest policies even constrain the poorest households' ability to meet survival needs. The findings indicate that the socioeconomic impacts of public forest policies may be underestimated in developing countries unless household economic heterogeneity and forestry's contribution to production are accounted for. The study also demonstrates that alternative policies for managing common property resources would reduce income inequalities in rural Nepalese communities and lift incomes and employment to a level where even the poorest households could meet their basic needs.

Objective: Knowledge surrounding the link between childhood adversity and reproductive outcomes at midlife is limited. The present study examined the relationship between childhood maltreatment (childhood sexual abuse [CSA], childhood physical punishment [CPP]), and menopause status at age 40.Methods: Data were gathered from female members of the Christchurch Health and Development Study, a longitudinal birth cohort of 1,265 individuals (630 females) born in Christchurch, New Zealand in 1977. Menopause status was defined by categorizing the female cohort at age 40 as either: 1) premenopausal, or 2) peri/ postmenopausal. Retrospective reports of CSA (<16 y) and CPP (<16 y) were obtained at ages 18 and 21 years.Results: The analysis sample comprised n ¼ 468 women with data recorded on both their menopause status at age 40 and history of maltreatment (<16 y), of whom 22% (n ¼ 104) were classified as peri/postmenopausal. A statistically significant association was found between and severity of CSA and menopause status, but not between CPP and menopause status. The association with CSA was robust to control for both childhood confounding factors (<16 y) and intervening adult factors (18-40 y) associated with the menopause transition. In the fully adjusted model, women who had experienced severe CSA involving attempted/completed sexual penetration had twice the rate of entering peri/postmenopause compared with those who reported no CSA (39.0% vs 18.8%).Conclusions: Severity of CSA exposure was associated with earlier menopausal transition in this female cohort. These findings are consistent with the emerging literature on the long-term health and developmental impacts of CSA.

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