Faculty Sponsor: Professor Kaparakis
Live Poster Session: https://wesleyan.zoom.us/j/97316846743
Robert Clemens
I am a government and environmental studies major in the class of 2026, from Cambridge, Massachusetts. This summer, I interned at The Fortune Society in West Harlem and made a data visualization project on Bluebikes in the Boston area (view here). This semester, I wrote a political theory thesis on postdevelopmentalist autonomy, and continued to play for the Wesleyan Rugby team.
Abstract: Inspired by the gateway drug theory, the idea that the use of one drug increases the chances of later using another drug, this project tests the relationship between users of alcohol and marijuana. Using the 2024 National Survey on Drug Use and Health survey data, it finds that there is a significant relationship between the type of ‘soft drugs’ (alcohol and marijuana) ever used and the type of hard drugs (hallucinogens and cocaine) ever used. The project does not find that there is a significant relationship between the soft drugs ever used and the number of days in the past year a cocaine user has used cocaine. However, it does find that there is a significant relationship between the number of days used hallucinogens in the past year and whether or not one has used alcohol, marijuana, or neither (although insignificant for both alcohol and marijuana).
Applied-Data-Analysis-Poster-Robbie-Clemens