Release Date
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Language of Resource
Full Text Available
Open Access / OK to Reproduce
Peer Reviewed
Objective
There remains limited qualitative community-based evidence on the role of cannabis co-use among opioid using and injecting populations. This study presents data from people who inject drugs' (PWID) co-use of cannabis and opioids.
Findings/Key points
PWID described that cannabis co-use assisted in developing patterns of reduced opioid use in a number of ways: 1) maintain opioid cessation and/or adhere to opioid use disorder treatment by managing cessation-specific symptoms, 2) manage symptoms of opioid withdrawal episodically and, 3) decrease opioid use due to low barrier accessibility of cannabis.
These findings have two major harm reduction implications for PWID: 1) the distribution of cannabis via low threshold peer programming can facilitate changes in opioid use patterns and 2) access to cannabis co-use, potentially alongside existing medication for Opioid Use Disorder, in treatment settings may improve efficacy of uptake and treatment outcomes and goals for individual PWID.
Design/methods
30 one-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with PWID from July 2021 to April 2022 at two community sites in Los Angeles, CA, near a syringe service program and a methadone clinic. Constructivist grounded theory methods were used for identifying and comparing the emerging themes that appeared across transcripts to construct a conceptual explanation of how PWID co-used cannabis and opioids.
