Cannabis involvement in posttraumatic stress disorder emergency department visits after cannabis legalization

TL;DR

Cannabis use among PTSD patients increased over time in Ontario, likely due to greater access and normalization rather than direct policy changes.

Contribution

This study examines how cannabis legalization affects cannabis use among individuals with PTSD using emergency department data.

Findings

Cannabis involvement in PTSD ED visits increased by 151% over the study period.

The increase in cannabis use was not directly linked to policy changes but to broader access and normalization.

Alcohol involvement in PTSD ED visits also increased, but by a smaller margin (58%).

Abstract

Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have an elevated risk of cannabis use disorder. However, the effect of cannabis legalization on use among individuals with PTSD is unclear. We evaluated changes in cannabis involvement in emergency department (ED) visits for PTSD after medical and nonmedical legalization in Ontario, Canada.

This repeated cross‐sectional study used health administrative data to identify all ED visits for PTSD among Ontario residents aged 10–105 between 2008 and 2022 (n = 15.7 million). We identified PTSD ED visits with a co‐diagnosis of cannabis (main exposure) or alcohol (control condition) and examined changes across four policy periods (medical legalization with restrictions, expanded medical legalization, nonmedical legalization with restrictions, and nonmedical commercial expansion) using Poisson models.

Among 381,450 PTSD ED visits, 4593 (1.29%) co‐involved cannabis and 11,625 (3.05%) co‐involved alcohol. Rates of cannabis involvement in PTSD ED visits increased by 151% (Incidence Rate Ratio [IRR]: 2.51; 95% CI: 2.24, 2.82) between the first and last policy periods (0.13 vs. 0.33 per 100,000 individuals), while alcohol‐involvement increased by 58% (IRR: 1.58; 95% CI: 1.47, 1.68). Cannabis involvement in PTSD ED visits increased steadily over the study period, with no significant association between policy periods and this trend.

Cannabis involvement in PTSD ED visits has increased over time during a period of liberalization of cannabis policy, but may be attributed to increased access and normalization rather than policy changes directly.

Findings underscore the need for improved detection of and targeted interventions for disordered cannabis use among individuals with PTSD in regions with legalized cannabis.

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