Impacts of recreational cannabis legalization on use and harms: A narrative review of sex/gender differences

Frontiers in Psychiatry

Psychiatry

Justin Matheson¹  Bernard Le Foll² 

[1] Translational Addiction Research Laboratory, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada;Translational Addiction Research Laboratory, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada;Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada;Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Campbell Family Mental Health Research Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada;Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada;Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada;Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada;Acute Care Program, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada;Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada;Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care, Waypoint Research Institute, Penetanguishene, ON, Canada;

关键词: sex;    gender;    cannabis;    legalization;    attitudes;    prevalence;    harms;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1127660

 received in 2022-12-19, accepted in 2023-02-20,  发布年份 2023

来源: Frontiers

【 摘 要 】

Legalization of cannabis use for non-medical (recreational) purposes is changing the global cannabis landscape. As attitudes toward cannabis use become more positive and prevalence of use increases in complex ways, concerns emerge about the potential for increased cannabis-attributable harms. Understanding the who, why, and when of this likely increase in cannabis-attributable harms is thus an important public health priority. Both sex and gender contribute to variability in the use, effects, and harms of cannabis and thus sex/gender considerations are important when evaluating the impacts of cannabis legalization. The goal of this narrative review is to broadly discuss sex/gender differences in attitudes toward and prevalence of cannabis use, whether there are sex/gender differences in the impacts of cannabis legalization, and why these sex/gender differences might exist. One of our strongest conclusions is that men have always been more likely to use cannabis than women, yet the sex/gender gap in prevalence of cannabis use has narrowed over time, and this might be partly due to cannabis legalization. The existing evidence suggests that there have also been sex/gender differences in the impacts of legalization on cannabis-attributable harms such as cannabis-involved motor vehicle collisions and hospitalizations, though these results are more variable. The body of literature reviewed has focused almost exclusively on samples of cisgender research participants, and thus future research should encourage inclusion of transgender and gender-diverse participants. More consideration of sex- and gender-based analysis in research evaluating long-term impacts of cannabis legalization is a clear research priority.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
Copyright © 2023 Matheson and Le Foll.