Sex and Gender Interactions on the Use and Impact of Recreational Cannabis

Abstract

Cannabis is the second most frequently used substance in the world and regulated or legalized for recreational use in Canada and fourteen US states and territories. As with all substances, a wide range of sex and gender related factors have an influence on how substances are consumed, their physical, mental and social impacts, and how men and women respond to treatment, health promotion, and policies. Given the widespread use of cannabis, and in the context of its increasing regulation, it is important to better understand the sex and gender related factors associated with recreational cannabis use in order to make more precise clinical, programming, and policy decisions. However, sex and gender related factors include a wide variety of processes, features and influences that are rarely fully considered in research. This article explores myriad features of both sex and gender as concepts, illustrates their impact on cannabis use, and focuses on the interactions of sex and gender that affect three main areas of public interest: the development of cannabis use dependence, the impact on various routes of administration (ROA), and the impact on impaired driving. We draw on two separate scoping reviews to examine available evidence in regard to these issues. These three examples are described and illustrate the need for more comprehensive and precise integration of sex and gender in substance use research, as well as serious consideration of the results of doing so, when addressing a major public health issue such as recreational cannabis use.

Gender Norms, Roles and Relations and Cannabis-Use Patterns: A Scoping Review

“…Therefore, studying gender in the context of cannabis use, or any other substance use, is complex, temporal and culturally specific. For further details on the features of both sex and gender as concepts, and the interaction of sex and gender in the context of cannabis use see the article published in this special issue by Greaves and Hemsing [17].…”

Cannabis Use Among Patients Attending A Methadone Maintenance Treatment Clinic In Nairobi, Kenya

“…Earlier reports have shown cannabis use by females on MMT to be a predictor for continued illicit drug use, increased risk to develop cannabis use disorder and worse mental health outcomes (16) and impact negatively on retention in treatment (15). This can be attributed to the gender differences that have been reported among people with cannabis use disorder (33,34).…”

Missing in Action: Sex and Gender in Substance Use Research

“…To assist with this process, I have suggested a breakdown of the elements comprising sex and gender for conceptual clarity in order to guide research, practice and policy making in health and in the substance use field. For diagrams, specific examples and to see its application in cannabis, see Greaves and Hemsing [5], in this issue. Sex, for example, includes the impact of hormones, genetics, physiology and anatomy, among many other biologically based aspects of human bodies.…”

“…While the past twenty years has seen a rise in interest and application of sex and gender science in health, the substance use field has been slow to insist on the inclusion of these concepts. This special issue [5,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] is aimed at providing a remedy for this lack, and more importantly, to provide examples of the impact of sex and gender in a range of substances, cultures, populations and contexts.…”

“…These articles address concepts [5], different substances such as alcohol [12,19,23], cannabis [5,17,18], illegal drugs [13], nicotine [11,12], opioids [14], and multi drug use [10], populations such as gay and bisexual men [13], fathers [20], mothers [15], pregnant women [9,23], patients [9,17] and adolescents [14]. They address interactions with interpersonal violence [22], treatment responses [21], abortion policy [23], other harms [12] in a range of settings in countries including Spain, Scotland, Turkey, Canada, China, Taiwan, and the USA.…”