Lessons from conducting trans-national Internet-mediated participatory research with hidden populations of cannabis cultivators

International Journal of Drug Policy

Volumn 26, Issue 3, 2015, Pages 238-249

  Barratt, Monica J ^a,b   Potter, Gary R ^c   Wouters, Marije ^d   Wilkins, Chris ^e   Werse, Bernd ^f   Perälä, Jussi ^g   Pedersen, Michael Mulbjerg ^h   Nguyen, Holly ⁱ   Malm, Aili ^j   Lenton, Simon ^b   Korf, Dirk ^d   Klein, Axel ^k   Heyde, Julie ^l   Hakkarainen, Pekka ^g   Frank, Vibeke Asmussen ^h   Decorte, Tom ^l   Bouchard, Martin ^m   Blok, Thomas ^d  

^a UNIVERSITY OF NEW SOUTH WALES   (Australia)

^b CURTIN UNIVERSITY   (Australia)

^c LONDON SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

^d UNIVERSITY OF AMSTERDAM   (Netherlands)

^e MASSEY UNIVERSITY   (New Zealand)

^f GOETHE UNIVERSITY   (Germany)

^g NATIONAL PUBLIC HEALTH INSTITUTE   (Finland)

^h AARHUS UNIVERSITY   (Denmark)

ⁱ UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND   (United States)

^j CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^k ROYAL UNITED SERVICES INSTITUTE   (United Kingdom)

^l GHENT UNIVERSITY   (Belgium)

^m SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY   (Canada)

more..

Author keywords

Cross national; Hidden population; Internet; Participatory research; Recruitment; Web survey

Indexed keywords

ARTICLE; AUSTRALIA; AUSTRIA; CANADA; CANNABIS USE; COMPUTER PREDICTION; COMPUTER PROGRAM; DENMARK; DRUG RESEARCH; FINLAND; GERMANY; INFORMATION PROCESSING; INFORMATION RETRIEVAL; INTERNATIONAL CANNABIS CULTIVATION QUESTIONNAIRE; INTERNET; NETHERLANDS; ONLINE SYSTEM; POPULATION RESEARCH; QUESTIONNAIRE; SWITZERLAND; UNITED KINGDOM; UNITED STATES; WEB BROWSER; ADULT; CLINICAL TRIAL; COMMERCIAL PHENOMENA; COOPERATION; DRUG CONTROL; DRUG TRAFFIC; ECONOMICS; EUROPE; FEMALE; GROWTH, DEVELOPMENT AND AGING; HUMAN; INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION; LEGISLATION AND JURISPRUDENCE; MALE; MANAGEMENT; MARIJUANA ABUSE; METHODOLOGY; MOTIVATION; MULTICENTER STUDY; NORTH AMERICA; OFFENDER; PATIENT SELECTION; PREVENTION AND CONTROL; PSYCHOLOGY; PUBLIC HEALTH; RISK ASSESSMENT; RISK FACTOR; SAMPLE SIZE; SOCIOECONOMICS; SUPPLY AND DISTRIBUTION; YOUNG ADULT;

CANNABINOID; CANNABIS;

ADULT; AUSTRALIA; CANNABINOIDS; CANNABIS; COMMERCE; COOPERATIVE BEHAVIOR; CRIMINALS; DRUG AND NARCOTIC CONTROL; DRUG TRAFFICKING; EUROPE; FEMALE; HUMANS; INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION; INTERNATIONALITY; INTERNET; MALE; MARIJUANA ABUSE; MOTIVATION; NORTH AMERICA; PATIENT SELECTION; POLICY MAKING; PUBLIC HEALTH; QUESTIONNAIRES; RESEARCH DESIGN; RISK ASSESSMENT; RISK FACTORS; SAMPLE SIZE; SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS; YOUNG ADULT;

EID: 84922507374     PISSN: 09553959     EISSN: 18734758     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2014.12.004     Document Type: Article

References (63)

1. Athey N.C., Bouchard M., Decorte T., Frank V.A., Hakkarainen P. Cannabis cultivation and detection: A comparative study of Belgium, Finland and Denmark. Drugs: Education, Prevention, and Policy 2013, 20:203-215.
2. Backyard Pot Grown for Health: Survey Sydney Morning Herald 2012, November, Available from http://www.smh.com.au/national/backyard-pot-grown-for-health-survey-20121118-29kd5.html and archived at http://www.webcitation.org/6SK5adPSg.
3. Baltar F., Brunet I. Social research 2.0: Virtual snowball sampling method using Facebook. Internet Research 2012, 22(1):57-74.
4. Barratt M.J. Discussing illicit drugs in public Internet forums: Visibility, stigma, and pseudonymity. Proceedings of the fifth international conference on communities and technologies, Brisbane, Australia, C&T 2011 2011, 159-168. ACM, New York, NY. J. Kjeldskov, J. Paay (Eds.).
5. Barratt M.J. The efficacy of interviewing young drug users through online chat. Drug and Alcohol Review 2012, 31:566-572.
6. Barratt M.J., Bouchard M., Decorte T., Frank V.A., Hakkarainen P., Lenton S., et al. Understanding global patterns of domestic cannabis cultivation. Drugs and Alcohol Today 2012, 12(4):213-221.
7. Barratt M.J., Ferris J.A., Lenton S. Hidden populations, online purposive sampling, and external validity: Taking off the blindfold. Field Methods 2014, (Epub 2014 April 14). 10.1177/1525822X14526838.
8. Barratt M.J., Lenton S. Beyond recruitment? Participatory online research with people who use drugs. International Journal of Internet Research Ethics 2010, 3:69-86.
9. Barratt M.J., Lenton S. Representativeness of online purposive sampling with Australian cannabis cultivators. International Journal of Drug Policy 2014.
10. Barratt M.J., Lenton S., Allen M. Internet content regulation, public drug websites and the growth in hidden Internet services. Drugs: Education, Prevention, and Policy 2013, 20:195-202.
11. Bauermeister J.A., Pingel E., Zimmerman M., Couper M., Carballo-Diéguez A., Strecher V.J. Data quality in HIV/AIDS web-based surveys: Handling invalid and suspicious data. Field Methods 2012, 24:272-291.
12. Bauermeister J.A., Zimmerman M.A., Johns M.M., Glowacki P., Stoddard S., Volz E. Innovative recruitment using online networks: Lessons learned from an online study of alcohol and other drug use utilizing a web-based, respondent-driven sampling (webRDS) strategy. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs 2012, 73:834-838.
13. Beusch D. Textual interaction as sexual interaction: Sexuality and/in the online interview. Sociological Research Online 2007, 12(5). (Article 14).
14. Bowen A., Daniel C., Williams M., Baird G. Identifying multiple submissions in Internet research: Preserving data integrity. AIDS and Behavior 2008, 12:964-973.
15. Brickman Bhutta C. Not by the book: Facebook as a sampling frame. Sociological Methods and Research 2012, 41(1):57-88.
16. Close S., Taylor L., Quach S., Pereira J.A., Russell M.L., Wormsbecker A.E., et al. The good, bad, and ugly of online recruitment of parents for health-related focus groups: Lessons learned. Journal of Medical Internet Research 2013, 15(11):e250.
17. Coomber R. Using the Internet for survey research. Sociological Research Online 1997, 2(2). http://www.socresonline.org.uk/2/2/2.html.
18. Coomber R. Using the Internet for qualitative research on drug users and drug markets: The pros, the cons and the progress. Markets, methods and messages. Dynamics in European drug research 2011, 85-103. Pabst Science Publishers, Lengerich. J. Fountain, V.A. Frank, D.J. Korf (Eds.).
19. Couper M.P. Web surveys: A review of issues and approaches. Public Opinion Quarterly 2000, 64:464-494.
20. Daniulaityte R., Carlson R., Falck R., Cameron D., Perera S., Chen L., et al. I just wanted to tell you that loperamide WILL WORK: A web-based study of extra-medical use of loperamide. Drug and Alcohol Dependence 2013, 130:241-244.
21. Decorte T. Small scale domestic cannabis cultivation: An anonymous web survey among 659 cannabis cultivators in Belgium. Contemporary Drug Problems 2010, 37:341-370.
22. Decorte T., Barratt M.J., Nguyen H., Bouchard M., Malm A., Lenton S. International Cannabis Cultivation Questionnaire (ICCQ) (Version 1.1) (Technical Report) 2012, Global Cannabis Cultivation Research Consortium, Belgium.
23. Decorte T., Paoli L., Kersten L., Heyde J., Van Dun E., Vlaemynck M. Cannabis production in Belgium: Assessment of the nature and harms, and implications for priority setting 2014, Academia Press, Ghent, Belgium.
24. World Wide Weed. Global trends in cannabis cultivation and its control 2011, Ashgate, Farnham, UK. T. Decorte, G.R. Potter, M. Bouchard (Eds.).
25. Dillman D.A. Mail and Internet surveys. The tailored design method 2007, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ. 2nd updated ed.
26. Ferner M. Marijuana ads banned on Google, Facebook and Twitter 2014, January, Huffington Post, Available from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/22/google-facebook-ban-marijuana_n_4646916.html and archived at http://www.webcitation.org/6R917DoRu.
27. Hakkarainen P., Frank V.A., Perälä J., Dahl H.V. Small-scale cannabis growers in Denmark and Finland. European Addiction Research 2011, 17:119-128.
28. Hakkarainen P., Frank V.A., Barratt M.J., Dahl H.V., Decorte T., Karjalainen K., et al. Growing medicine: Small-scale cannabis cultivation for medical purposes in six different countries. International Journal of Drug Policy 2014.
29. Harkness J.A. Comparative survey research: Goals and challenges. International handbook of survey methodology 2008, 56-77. Lawrence Erlbaum, New York. E.D. de Leeuw, J.J. Hox, D.A. Dillman (Eds.).
30. Harzing A.W., Reiche B.S., Pudelko M. Challenges in international survey research: A review with illustrations and suggested solutions for best practice. European Journal of International Management 2013, 7(1):112-134.
31. Hewson C. Qualitative approaches in Internet-mediated research: Opportunities, issues, possibilities. The Oxford handbook of qualitative research 2014, 423-452. Oxford University Press, Oxford. P. Leavy (Ed.).
32. Hewson C., Laurent D. Research design and tools for Internet research. The SAGE handbook of online research methods 2008, 58-78. SAGE, London. N. Fielding, R.M. Lee, G. Blank (Eds.).
33. Kalogeraki S. On the benefits and constraints of the web-based illicit drug survey. International Journal of Interdisciplinary Social Sciences 2012, 6(5):239-252.
34. Kays K.M., Keith T.L., Broughal M.T. Best practice in online survey research with sensitive topics. Advancing research methods with new technologies 2013, 157-168. Information Science Reference, Hershey, PA. 10.4018/978-1-4666-3918-8.ch009. N. Sappleton (Ed.).
35. Kjellgren A., Henningsson H., Soussan C. Fascination and social togetherness. Discussions about spice smoking on a Swedish Internet forum. Substance Abuse: Research and Treatment 2013, 7:191-198.
36. Larson J., Perlroth N., Shane S. Revealed: The NSA's secret campaign to crack, undermine Internet security 2013, September, ProPublica, Available from http://www.propublica.org/article/the-nsas-secret-campaign-to-crack-undermine-internet-encryption and archived at http://www.webcitation.org/6SK9F3Evh.
37. Lee R.M., Fielding N., Blank G. The Internet as a research medium. The SAGE handbook of online research methods 2008, 3-20. SAGE, London. N. Fielding, R.M. Lee, G. Blank (Eds.).
38. Lenton S., Frank V.A., Barratt M.J., Dahl H.V., Potter G.R. Attitudes of cannabis growers to regulation of cannabis cultivation under a non-prohibition cannabis model. International Journal of Drug Policy 2014.
39. Livingston M., Dietze P., Ferris J., Pennay D., Hayes L., Lenton S. Surveying alcohol and other drug use through telephone sampling: A comparison of landline and mobile phone samples. BMC Medical Research Methods 2013, 13. (Article 41).
40. Lyon D. Surveillance, Snowden, and Big Data: Capacities, consequences, critique. Big Data and Society 2014, 1. 10.1177/2053951714541861.
41. Mansfield-Devine S. Tor under attack. Computer Fraud and Security 2014, 2014(8):15-18.
42. Miller P.G., Johnston J., McElwee P.R., Noble R. A pilot study using the Internet to study patterns of party drug use: Processes, findings and limitations. Drug and Alcohol Review 2007, 26:169-174.
43. Miller P.G., Sønderlund A.L. Using the Internet to research hidden populations of illicit drug users: A review. Addiction 2010, 105:1557-1567.
44. Nguyen H., Malm A., Bouchard M. Production, perceptions, and punishment: Restrictive deterrence in the context of cannabis cultivation. International Journal of Drug Policy 2014.
45. O'Connor A., Jackson L., Goldsmith L., Skirton H. Can I get a retweet please? Health research recruitment and the Twittersphere. Journal of Advanced Nursing 2014, 70:599-609.
46. Paoli L., Decorte T. Assessing the harms of cannabis cultivation in Belgium. International Journal of Drug Policy 2014.
47. Potter G.R., Chatwin C. Researching cannabis markets online: Some lessons from the virtual field. Markets, methods and messages. Dynamics in European drug research 2011, 69-84. Pabst Science Publishers, Lengerich. J. Fountain, V.A. Frank, D.J. Korf (Eds.).
48. Potter G.R., Chatwin C. The problem with skunk. Drugs and Alcohol Today 2012, 12(4):232-240.
49. Potter G.R., Barratt M.J., Malm A., Bouchard M., Blok T., Christensen A.-S., et al. Global patterns of domestic cannabis cultivation: Sample characteristics and patterns of growing across eleven countries. International Journal of Drug Policy 2014.
50. Ramo D.E., Rodriguez T.M., Chavez K., Sommer M.J., Prochaska J.J. Facebook recruitment of young adult smokers for a cessation trial: Methods, metrics, and lessons learned. Internet Interventions 2014, 1(2):58-64.
51. Rhodes S.D., Bowie D.A., Hergenrather K.C. Collecting behavioural data using the world wide web: Considerations for researchers. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health 2003, 57:68-73.
52. Sibona C., Walczak S. Purposive sampling on Twitter: A case study. Paper presented at the 45th Hawaii international conference on system sciences, Hawaii 2012, IEEE Computer Society. 10.1109/HICSS.2012.493.
53. Temple E.C., Brown R.F. A comparison of Internet-based participant recruitment methods: Engaging the hidden population of cannabis users in research. Journal of Research Practice 2011, 7(2). (Article D2).
54. Tuten T.L. Conducting online surveys. Advanced methods for conducting online behavioral research 2010, 179-192. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC. S.D. Gosling, J.A. Johnson (Eds.).
55. United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime 2014 World Drug Report 2014, United Nations, Vienna.
56. van Gelder M.M., Bretveld R.W., Roeleveld N. Web-based questionnaires: The future in epidemiology?. American Journal of Epidemiology 2010, 172:1292-1298.
57. van Hout M.C. Nod and Wave: An Internet study of the codeine intoxication phenomenon. International Journal of Drug Policy 2014, (Epub 2014 June 30). 10.1016/j.drugpo.2014.06.016.
58. van Hout M.C., Bingham T. 'Surfing the Silk Road': A study of users' experiences. International Journal of Drug Policy 2013, 24:524-529.
59. van Ooyen-Houben M., Bieleman B., Korf D.J. Coffeeshops, toeristen en lokale markt. Evaluatie van het Besloten club- en Ingezetenencriterium voor coffeeshops (Cahier No. 204-12) 2014, Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek- en Documentatiecentrum (WODC), The Hague, Netherlands.
60. von Appelbaum J., Gibson A., Goetz J., Kabisch V., Kampf L., Ryge L. NSA targets the privacy-conscious 2014, DasErste.de, Available from http://daserste.ndr.de/panorama/aktuell/NSA-targets-the-privacy-conscious,nsa230.html and archived at http://www.webcitation.org/6SKGFtKzC.
61. Werse B., Morgenstern C. How to handle legal highs? Findings from a German online survey and considerations on drug policy issues. Drugs and Alcohol Today 2012, 12(4):222-231.
62. Witte J.C. Introduction to the special issue on web surveys. Sociological Methods and Research 2009, 37:283-290.
63. Wouters M. Cannabis control. Consequences for consumption and cultivation 2013, Rozenberg Publishers, Amsterdam.