Lessons from 20 years of medical cannabis use in Canada.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Canada was one of the first countries to regulate the medical use of cannabis. However, literature on Canada's medical cannabis program is limited.

Methods

We use administrative data from the medical cannabis program, and licensed cannabis vendor catalog data to describe a) the participation of patients, physicians, and cannabis vendors in the program from its inception in 1999 to 2021, and b) trends in medical cannabis consumption, prices and potency. We also use national surveys conducted over the last several decades to estimate trends in regular cannabis use (medical or otherwise) and how it changed during the medical cannabis access regimes.

Results

In 2001, the Canadian government granted access to those with physician-documented evidence of a severe

SUBMITTER: Shim M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10035846 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature