Rights statement: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Drugs: Education, Prevention, Policy on 18/12/2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09687637.2017.1411888
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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Examining the blurred boundaries between medical and recreational cannabis
T2 - Results from an international study of small-scale cannabis cultivation
AU - Hakkarainen, Pekka
AU - Decorte, Tom
AU - Sznitman, Sharon
AU - Karjalainen, Karoliina
AU - Barratt, Monica
AU - Frank, Vibeke Asmussen
AU - Lenton, Simon
AU - Potter, Gary Richard
AU - Werse, Bernd
AU - Wilkins, Chris
N1 - This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Drugs: Education, Prevention, Policy on 18/12/2017, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09687637.2017.1411888
PY - 2019/4/1
Y1 - 2019/4/1
N2 - Aim: To compare characteristics of recreational vs. medical growers in a sample of small-scale cannabis cultivators from 12 countries. Methods: Six thousand eight hundred ninety six respondents who took part in an online survey were divided into three groups as: those who reported growing for recreational use, those cultivating for medical purposes who also reported use of other illegal drugs, and those who reported cultivation for medical use and didn't use other illegal substances. The groups were compared using multinomial logistic regression. Findings: In comparison to recreational growers, the two groups of medical growers included more females, consumed cannabis more frequently, and were more likely to cite health-related motivations for growing. The medical growers without other illicit drug use shared some of the same features with the medical growers with illicit drug use, but in comparison to both other groups, they were older, used less alcohol and tobacco, and were less likely to be involved in illicit activities other than drug crimes. Conclusions: Findings suggest that claims of medical use are not simply an attempt to justify personal cannabis consumption, but do at least partly reflect a genuine belief in medical benefit. However, those growing cannabis for medical reasons form a heterogeneous group of people.
AB - Aim: To compare characteristics of recreational vs. medical growers in a sample of small-scale cannabis cultivators from 12 countries. Methods: Six thousand eight hundred ninety six respondents who took part in an online survey were divided into three groups as: those who reported growing for recreational use, those cultivating for medical purposes who also reported use of other illegal drugs, and those who reported cultivation for medical use and didn't use other illegal substances. The groups were compared using multinomial logistic regression. Findings: In comparison to recreational growers, the two groups of medical growers included more females, consumed cannabis more frequently, and were more likely to cite health-related motivations for growing. The medical growers without other illicit drug use shared some of the same features with the medical growers with illicit drug use, but in comparison to both other groups, they were older, used less alcohol and tobacco, and were less likely to be involved in illicit activities other than drug crimes. Conclusions: Findings suggest that claims of medical use are not simply an attempt to justify personal cannabis consumption, but do at least partly reflect a genuine belief in medical benefit. However, those growing cannabis for medical reasons form a heterogeneous group of people.
KW - cannabis
KW - cultivation
KW - medical use
KW - recreational use
KW - normalization
KW - international study
KW - online survey
U2 - 10.1080/09687637.2017.1411888
DO - 10.1080/09687637.2017.1411888
M3 - Journal article
VL - 26
SP - 250
EP - 258
JO - Drugs: Education, Prevention, and Policy
JF - Drugs: Education, Prevention, and Policy
SN - 0968-7637
IS - 3
ER -