Medication and substance use increases among people using cannabis medically during the COVID-19 pandemic

Principal Investigator(s):  View help for Principal Investigator(s) Kevin Boehnke, University of Michigan Medical School; Jenna McAfee, University of Michigan Medical School; Joshua Ackerman, University of Michigan; Daniel Kruger, University of Michigan

Version:  View help for Version V1

Name File Type Size Last Modified
Cannabis+COVID-19_IJDP.csv text/csv 116.5 KB 07/01/2021 03:57:AM
Cannabis_COVID-19_survey.pdf application/pdf 301 KB 07/01/2021 03:58:AM

Project Citation: 

Boehnke, Kevin, McAfee, Jenna , Ackerman, Joshua , and Kruger, Daniel. Medication and substance use increases among people using cannabis medically during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2021-07-01. https://doi.org/10.3886/E144201V1

Project Description

Summary:  View help for Summary The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic strains the medical system, limiting access to healthcare services. Many people use cannabis medically for chronic health conditions and as a substitute for other medications. As such, changes in cannabis access associated with COVID-19 may result in increased non-cannabis drug use. 

We recruited  individuals through Amazon Mechanical Turk who reported current medical cannabis use in April and May of 2020. We assessed the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on patterns of medication and substance use, as well as on cannabis use patterns. 

Over half of participants either started using or increased use of medications or substances because of the COVID-19 pandemic, most commonly alcohol and sleep aids. The reported increase in drug use among people using medical cannabis is concerning. Because the pandemic will likely continue for months (or even years), having a better understanding of why this is occurring is critical for developing effective harm-reduction strategies in this population.
Funding Sources:  View help for Funding Sources University of Michigan, Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center

Scope of Project

Subject Terms:  View help for Subject Terms cannabis; covid; substance use
Geographic Coverage:  View help for Geographic Coverage United States
Time Period(s):  View help for Time Period(s) 4/2020 – 5/2020
Data Type(s):  View help for Data Type(s) survey data

Methodology

Sampling:  View help for Sampling We recruited US-based participants using Amazon Mechanical Turk via Cloud Research(Chandler, Rosenzweig, Moss, Robinson & Litman, 2019) in April-May 2020. All responses were anonymized. Participants first completed a screener survey (<1 min, $0.01 compensation) con- taining an attention check, distraction questions, and a query about cur- rent cannabis use (never used, recreationally only, medically only, combi- nation of medically and recreationally). N = 2897 participants completed the screener. Those who passed the attention check and currently used cannabis medically or medically and recreationally were invited to par- ticipate in the full survey (~5 min, $0.50 compensation). After remov- ing 135 responses that failed attention checks, indicated that they did not use cannabis medically, or were not >18 years, 353 eligible re- sponses remained. 
Data Source:  View help for Data Source Amazon Turk
Collection Mode(s):  View help for Collection Mode(s) web-based survey
Geographic Unit:  View help for Geographic Unit United States

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Published Versions

V1 [2021-07-01]

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