A Public Health Approach to Cannabis

The Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) has undertaken a project to engage a range of individuals and organizations from the health, public health and social service communities to identify their knowledge and information needs regarding cannabis consumption and enhance their knowledge of, and capacity to address issues related to the use of cannabis and other substances. [...] Positive View of Health and Negative View of Health and Social Effects Social Effects (n = 136) (n = 106) Youth consumption will increase 12.5% 92.3% Youth consumption will remain 68.4% 4.8% the same Regulation of Cannabis The following section summarizes respondents’ beliefs with regards to the regulatory framework, such as minimum age of purchase and the locations where smoking cannabis should b [...] Table 4. Perception of what the minimum legal age to purchase cannabis should be among respondents with positive and negative view of the health and social effects of cannabis legalization. [...] When asked the extent to which they agreed with the following statement4, “My patients/clients understand the increased risk of driving under the influence of both cannabis and alcohol”, only 20.8% of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that their clients or patients understood the increased risk of driving under the influence of cannabis and alcohol, while 38.4% of respondents disagreed or stro [...] To gain a deeper insight, the cross-tabulation performed compared the responses of those with positive views of the health and social effects of legalization to those with negative views, as well as the responses of those who indicated they were comfortable discussing cannabis consumption with their patients or clients to those who indicated they were not comfortable.