SimUse: Simulation of recreational poly-drug use

Abstract

Abstract-This on-going project aims to build an ontological model concerning recreational poly-drug use and to use an agentbased simulation, SimUse, to test and verify related public policies. We consider drug-use (and even more so poly-drug use) to be a complex adaptive system that needs to be studied via a methodology able to describe such a dynamic and complex social phenomenon. To contextualize the complexity of poly-drug use and highlight the necessity of a multidisciplinary approach to study this practice we will pay particular attention to justify our theoretical assertions and computational constructions by qualitative researches, statistical surveys and/or theoretical concepts. The description of the different levels composing the structure of drug use and the dynamics between these levels leads us to consider an ontological approach as the best way to capture and encapsulate poly-drug use. We will describe the global structure of our simulation via an UML diagram as well as the way we want to model the decision process concerning drug consumption. We finish with an illustration of tests that can be run with SimUse: this example presents results of different law enforcement policies and their consequences for decision-makers.

A Control Theory Model of Smoking

“…Other assumptions simplify parameter variation, an impact of environmental stressors, and ignore potential drug-seeking behaviors during withdrawal and craving. Although several complex models (Lamy, 2011; Levy, 2013) simultaneously include many aspects of measurable and unmeasurable human behavior, we started with a relatively simple model that was recently validated on data from animal experiments (Bobashev et al, 2015) and developed a representation of a specific substance use theory.…”

“…Comprehending a cascade of feedback loops between a variety of biologic, neurocognitive, behavioral, social, and environmental factors is one of the main challenges in substance use research. A few models exist that describe various feedback loops (Lamy et al, 2011; Levy et al, 2013; O’Reilly & Munakata, 2000). However, most of these models are quite complex, and their practical utility for prevention and treatment is low.…”