Puff, Puff, Don't Pass: harm reduction for cannabis use during a viral respiratory pandemic

Ryan D Assaf; Marjan Javanbakht; Pamina M Gorbach; Onyebuchi A Arah; Steven J Shoptaw; Ziva D Cooper

doi:10.1186/s12954-023-00751-8

Puff, Puff, Don't Pass: harm reduction for cannabis use during a viral respiratory pandemic

Harm Reduct J. 2023 Feb 25;20(1):23. doi: 10.1186/s12954-023-00751-8.

Authors

Ryan D Assaf^{1

2}, Marjan Javanbakht³, Pamina M Gorbach^{4

3

5}, Onyebuchi A Arah^{3

6}, Steven J Shoptaw^{7

8}, Ziva D Cooper^{4

9

10}

Affiliations

¹ UCLA Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoids, Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA. rassaf@ucla.edu.
² Department of Epidemiology, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA. rassaf@ucla.edu.
³ Department of Epidemiology, Fielding School of Public Health, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁴ UCLA Center for Cannabis and Cannabinoids, Jane and Terry Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁵ Division of Infectious Diseases, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁶ Department of Statistics, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁷ Center for Behavioral and Addiction Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁸ Family Medicine and Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
⁹ Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Anesthesiology and Perioperative Medicine, David Geffen School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.

Abstract

Background: Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, cannabis use social practices often involved sharing prepared cannabis (joints/blunts/cigarettes) and cannabis-related paraphernalia. Previous studies have demonstrated that sharing paraphernalia for cannabis, tobacco, and crack cocaine is a risk factor for respiratory viral and bacterial infections. Although COVID-19 is a respiratory viral infection that spreads through droplets and airborne transmission, it is unclear if many individuals adopted harm reduction practices around sharing cannabis. This study: quantifies the prevalence of sharing prepared non-medical cannabis and cannabis-related paraphernalia reported before and during the pandemic; assesses changes in sharing of non-medical cannabis from before to during the pandemic; assess the association between frequency of non-medical cannabis use and sharing of cannabis during the pandemic; and describes how respondents obtained their cannabis and the reasons for changing their cannabis use during the pandemic to explain differences in sharing patterns.

Methods: This cross-sectional study used data collected from an anonymous, US-based web survey on cannabis-related behaviors from August to September 2020 (n = 1833). Participants were included if they reported using a mode of inhalation for non-medical cannabis consumption. We calculated proportional changes in sharing cannabis before/during the COVID-19 pandemic. Associations between frequency of cannabis use and cannabis sharing during the COVID-19 pandemic were assessed using logistic regression analysis.

Results: Overall, 1,112 participants reported non-medical cannabis use; 925 (83.2%) reported a mode of cannabis inhalation. More respondents reported no sharing during (24.9%) than before the pandemic (12.4%; p < 0.01); less respondents shared most of the time (19.5% before; 11.2% during; p < 0.01) and always during the pandemic (5.2% before; 3.1% during; p < 0.01). After adjusting for covariates, the odds of any sharing during the pandemic for those who reported ≥ weekly cannabis use was 0.53 (95% CI 0.38, 0.75) compared to those who reported ≤ monthly.

Conclusions: Sharing of prepared cannabis and cannabis-related paraphernalia decreased during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to before the pandemic. This finding suggests potential risk mitigation strategies taken by participants for COVID-19 prevention either directly through behavior change or indirectly through adherence to COVID-19 prevention recommendations. Harm reduction messaging around sharing of cannabis during surges of COVID-19 or other respiratory infections may provide benefit in reducing infection among those who use cannabis, especially as cannabis use in the USA continues to increase.

Keywords: COVID-19; Cannabis; Inhaled; Pandemic; Paraphernalia; Prepared; Sharing; Substance use; Viral respiratory infection.

Publication types

Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Cannabis*
Cross-Sectional Studies
Harm Reduction
Humans
Pandemics

Abstract

Publication types

MeSH terms

Grants and funding