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Health conditions and motivations for marijuana use among young adult medical marijuana patients and non-patient marijuana users
Journal article   Open access   Peer reviewed

Health conditions and motivations for marijuana use among young adult medical marijuana patients and non-patient marijuana users

Stephen E Lankenau, Janna Ataiants, Salini Mohanty, Sheree Schrager, Ellen Iverson and Carolyn F Wong
Drug and alcohol review, v 37(2), pp 237-246
Feb 2018
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/dar.12534
PMID: 28434211
Featured in Collection :   UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
url
https://europepmc.org/articles/pmc5732072View
Accepted (AM),  Open

Abstract

Adolescent Adult Anxiety - drug therapy Female Humans Los Angeles Male Marijuana Smoking - psychology Medical Marijuana - therapeutic use Motivation Pain Management - methods Pain Management - psychology Self Report Young Adult
While marijuana has been legal for medical purposes in California since 1996, little is known about the health histories of young adult medical marijuana patients who are a significant proportion of medical marijuana patients. We examined whether young adult medical marijuana patients reported health conditions and motivations for use that were consistent with medical use of marijuana in California. Young adults (N = 366) aged 18 to 26 years were sampled in Los Angeles in 2014-2015 and segmented into medical marijuana 'patients' (n = 210), marijuana users with a current recommendation, and non-patient users or 'non-patients' (n = 156), marijuana users who never had a medical marijuana recommendation. Differences between patients and non-patients regarding self-reported health histories and past/current motivations for marijuana use were expressed as unadjusted risk ratios. Compared with non-patients, patients were significantly more likely to report a range of lifetime health problems, such as psychological, physical pain and gastrointestinal. In the past 90 days, patients were significantly more likely to report motivations for marijuana use than non-patients concerning sleep, anxiety, physical pain and focusing. Psychological and pain problems were the most common health conditions reported to receive a medical marijuana recommendation. Patients were significantly less likely than non-patients to report any privacy concerns about obtaining a medical marijuana recommendation. Patients were significantly more likely to report a range of health conditions and motivations associated with medical use than non-patients. A great majority of patients reported obtaining a medical marijuana recommendation for health problems in accordance with the California law. [Lankenau SE, Ataiants J,Mohanty S, Schrager S, Iverson E, Wong CF.Health conditions and motivations for marijuana use among young adultmedical marijuana patients and non-patient marijuana users. Drug Alcohol Rev 2017;00:000-000].

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14 Record Views
38 citations in Web of Science
39 citations in Scopus

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UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

This publication has contributed to the advancement of the following goals:

#3 Good Health and Well-Being

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Collaboration types
Domestic collaboration
Web of Science research areas
Substance Abuse
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