Evaluating the Impact of Cannabis Legalization in Canada on Risk-Taking Behaviours

The proposed research will focus on changes in cannabis use patterns and sources of supply following cannabis legalization, and on how these changes produce and/or reduce cannabis-related harm. The research will involve statistical analyses of Statistic Canada’s National Cannabis Survey (NCS). Some key areas of consideration will be: cannabis-impaired driving, cannabis dependence, and youth cannabis use. The partner organization (the Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction [CCSA]) will benefit by having a researcher with expertise in the substance use and addiction field who can conduct analyses on cannabis trends and patterns before and after legalization, and who can write reports for the organization and update the organization’s resources based on these findings. Some examples of resources I will update include: the Cannabis Drug Summary (see, for example, CCSA 2018) and the Clearing the Smoke on Cannabis series (see, for example, Beirness and Porath 2017). The research findings will also be used by CCSA knowledge brokers to create resources such as infographics to help disseminate the findings and by policy analysts to incorporate into policy briefs with the goal of influencing future program and policy development and implementation.

Faculty Supervisor:

David Walters

Student:

Nicholas Cristiano

Partner:

Canadian Centre on Substance Abuse

Discipline:

Anthropology

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Guelph