Drug Use and overdose

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WHAT IS IT?

This model is trying to look at how drug use may spread through a network, as existing drug users reinforce their habits and those of others, and new drugs users are recruited by existing drug users as they are visited more than once. Thus, turtles represent people in this model.

This model also aims to look at how overdose may occur as a function of increasing drug use.

HOW IT WORKS

People start out as either drug users or not, and wander randomly around the world. Drug users also have a range of severity of their drug use, with 0 = little/none.

People may start using drugs if they run into drugs in the world, represented by red patches.

Drug users ask one of their connections to increase drug use level by a small amount at times. This could represent trying drugs, not necessarily becoming a drug user.

If drug users 1) have too high of drug use, or 2) have moderately high drug use and are also socially isolated, they overdose.

HOW TO USE IT

Sliders to manipulate at setup: Population Size: Alters number of people in the world Drug users: Alters number of drug users to start Drug availability: Alters the number of red patches the represent drug availability to increase people's drug use

THINGS TO NOTICE

How many overdoses are there at any point? Does this increase with the overall number of drug users? Do overdoses increase with the number of drug users initially?

THINGS TO TRY

Play with the number on the sliders.

EXTENDING THE MODEL

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NETLOGO FEATURES

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RELATED MODELS

(models in the NetLogo Models Library and elsewhere which are of related interest)

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Click to Run Model

extensions [ nw ]

globals [ number-overdoses ] ;; set up global variable to keep track of turtles that OD


turtles-own [ ;risk         ;; turtles have individual levels of suicide risk
              unemployed?  ;; if true you are unemployed: need this variable??? 
              resilience   ;; how resilient turtle is to risk variables (protective factor), higher number = more resilient
              drug-user?   ;; if true, then turtle uses drugs
              drug-level   ;; severity of drug use, 0 equals very low
            ]

;expect network to be fairly stable; expect drug use cluster, non drug use cluster, 
;randomly pick up drug use of neighbor at some ticks
;randomly make friends with people with your behavior

;report nw:clustering-coefficient of turtles who OD and those who use drugs

to setup
  ca
  setup-turtles
  setup-network
  ;setup-worksites
  setup-drugsites
 reset-ticks
end 

to setup-turtles
  crt population-size   [
    set shape "person" 
    set color blue
    setxy random-xcor random-ycor
    set drug-user? false
    set drug-level 0
    set unemployed? false
  ]
  ask n-of ((percent-drug-user / 100 ) * count turtles) turtles [
    set drug-user? true
    set drug-level random-float .5
    if unemployed? [
      set drug-level drug-level + .2 ]   ;;higher use of drugs if you are unemployed
  ]   
end 

to setup-network  ;; num links set by slider???
  ask turtles [          ; set up links with turtles wiht whom i'm in the same general area 
  create-links-with n-of (random 4) other turtles in-radius 10  
  ] 
end 

;to setup-worksites     ;; some patches represent the workplace 
;  ask patch -10 10 [ 
;    set pcolor yellow 
;    ask neighbors in-radius 10 [
;      set pcolor yellow ]
;  ]
;  ask patch 8 -10 [ 
;    set pcolor yellow 
;    ask neighbors in-radius 10 [
;      set pcolor yellow ]
;  ]
;end

to setup-drugsites            ;; some of patches turn red to indicate drug availability  
  ask n-of drug-availability patches [
    set pcolor red ]
end 

to go
  ask turtles [
    rt 40
    lt 10 
    fd 2
  ;go-to-work
  start-drugs
  if drug-level > .5 [       ; if turtles have been using drugs enough they can be considered a stable drug user
    set drug-user? true ]
  if drug-user? [
    ;find-drugs 
    increase-drug-network
    overdose   ]
  ]
tick  
end 

;to go-to-work
;;; make links with turtles who i work with (who are in my neighborhood 
;  let workplace one-of patches with pcolor yellow
;end 
  
;; pick up drugs in the environment

to start-drugs
  if random 100 < drug-level and (pcolor = red) [
    set drug-level drug-level + .1 
    set drug-user? true
  ]
end 

;; make links with turtles who use drugs

to increase-drug-network
;  let drug-partners turtles with [drug-user?] in-radius 3   ;;if i use drugs- i connect to other nearby drug users and increase my drug use 
;    if any? drug-partners [
;      create-links-with one-of drug-partners 
;      set drug-level drug-level + .1  
      if any? link-neighbors [
      ask one-of link-neighbors  [        ;; had to take out != myself
        set drug-level drug-level + .1 ]        ; i reinforce/increase other's drug use too
    ]
end 


;; OD if drug use too high and too socially isolated
;; OD if drug use too high, period

to overdose
 if (drug-level > .6) and (sum [drug-level] of link-neighbors > 1.2 ) [
   set number-overdoses number-overdoses + 1
   die ]
 if drug-level > 2 [
   set number-overdoses number-overdoses + 1
   die ]
end 

;randomly pick up drug use of neighbor at some ticks

There is only one version of this model, created about 10 years ago by Gracelyn Cruden.

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