Objective: Cancer treatments often cause side effects. Cannabis is a plant that has been studied and used to treat and relieve side effects from modern medicine. Medical cannabis (MC) was legalized in Thailand in 2019 with limited research on demand for its use. Therefore, this study aimed to identify factors associated with demand for MC use among cancer patients in the North of Thailand. Methods: This analytical cross-sectional study administered a multistage random sampling to recruit 1,284 cancer patients in northern Thailand to response a self-administered structured questionnaire. Generalized Linear Mixed Model (GLMM) was used to identify the determinants of demand for MC use among the population, presented adjusted odds ratios (adj.OR), 95% confidence intervals (95% CI), and p-values. Result: Nearly half of the respondents reported demand to use MC (44.0%). The factors that were significantly associated with demand to use MC included had high levels of health literacy about MC (adj.OR = 5.70; 95% CI: 4.08 to 7.96), higher levels of social support (adj.OR =5.50; 95% CI: 3.60 to 8.39), positive attitudes toward MC use (adj.OR = 2.56; 95% CI: 1.83 to 3.56), aged less than 30 (adj.OR =1.89; 95% CI: 1.21 to 2.93), diagnosis with cancerfor more than 12 months ago (adj.OR =1.73; 95% CI: 1.19 to 2.52) when controlling effect of other covariates. Conclusion: We found substantial demand for MC use among cancer patients. Health literacy,social support, attitudes about MC, age, and duration of having cancer were significantly associated with demand for MC use. Therefore, improving health literacy and social support, especially among older cancer patients, could help increasing demand for MC as a complementary medicine to treat cancers.

Background: Despite has been illegal in many counties, cannabis is the most frequently used illicit drug worldwide. The legalization of medical cannabis (MC) in Thailand has just been effective in 2019, resulted in increasing demand for MC use of which many are inappropriate use. Therefore, this study aimed to describe the current situation of intention to use medical cannabis and identify factors associated with MC demand in the Northeast of Thailand.Method: This analytical cross-sectional study administered a multistage random sampling to select 1,273 peoples in the Northeast of Thailand. Data were collected by using a self-administered structured questionnaire. Multiple logistic regression analysis was used to identify the determinants of intention to use MC among people in the Northeast of Thailand, presented adjusted odds ratio, 95% confidence interval, and p-values. Result:The results indicated that most of the respondents had intention to use MC (75.81%). The factors that were significantly associated with intention to use MC included; had good to very good levels of attitude toward MC (adj.OR = 3.74; 95%CI: 2.77-5.04), ever received information on MC (adj.OR = 2.16; 95%CI: 1.59-2.94), lived in urban areas (adj.OR = 1.90; 95%CI: 1.40-2.57), had sufficient and excellent levels of health literacy in understanding information on MC (adj.OR = 1.56; 95%CI: 1.18-2.06) and had low and average levels of knowledge concerning MC (adj.OR = 1.51; 95%CI: 1.12-2.05) when controlling other covariates. Conclusion:Most of the people in the Northeast region had intention to use MC. Attitude, knowledge, health literacy, acquiring information and residential setting had influence on intention to use MC.

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