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Prevention, Practice, and Policy: Older US Veterans’ Perspectives on Cannabis Use

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Abstract

Background and Objective

Veterans often struggle with disabling physical and mental health conditions that tend to worsen as they age. Current medications used to treat these conditions include opioids and benzodiazepines though they can have negative side effects. Looking for alternatives to these medications, many older Veterans use cannabis for medical purposes. We aimed to develop a deeper understanding of older Veterans’ cannabis use.

Methods

We used maximum variation sampling to select 32 Veterans who had completed baseline and follow-up surveys to participate in semi-structured interviews.

Results

After applying a thematic analysis, results show older Veterans are using medical cannabis as a means of harm reduction as an adjunct or substitute for other medications and substances with limited guidance from their healthcare providers. Veterans also reported that there exists an inconsistency across the Veterans Health Administration system regarding the interpretation and application of cannabis policies.

Conclusions

Drawing from these findings, we explore medical cannabis as a harm reduction technique and discuss how a lack of physician engagement and current Veterans Health Administration policies discourage older Veterans from discussing and potentially benefiting from the use of medical cannabis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medicine, Center for Dissemination and Implementation Science, University of Illinois at Chicago, 818 S. Wolcott Ave, SRH-629, Chicago, IL, 60612, USA

    Julie Bobitt

  2. School of Social Work, Texas State, San Marcos, TX, USA

    Kelly Clary

  3. Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access, Elliston, VI, USA

    Michael Krawitz

  4. Department of Kinesiology and Community Health, University of Illinois at Urbana, Champaign, IL, USA

    Laura Quintero Silva & Hyojung Kang

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  4. Laura Quintero Silva
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  5. Hyojung Kang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Julie Bobitt.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Chez Veterans Center Military Service Knowledge Collaborative at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors have no conflicts of interest that are directly relevant to the content of this article.

Ethics Approval

Our study was approved by The University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign Institutional Review Board (approval no. 21287).

Consent to Participate

All participants provided electronic consent prior to completing the survey and verbal consent prior to participating in the interview. A waiver of signatures was obtained by the institutional review board to protect participants’ identities.

Availability of Data and Material

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available because of the sensitive subject nature and the risk of a breach of confidentiality but may be available in some form from the corresponding author on reasonable request and with proper institutional review approval.

Code Availability

Not applicable.

Authors’ Contributions

JB is the lead author of the manuscript. JB led the sampling of participants, interviewed participants, oversaw the transcription and deidentification of the interviews, and oversaw the analysis. KC is the co-investigator of the project and participated in interviewing participants, and co-led the coding, theming, and analysis. She contributed to the conceptualization of the paper and to the content and editing. MK is a Veteran and policy advocate who is part of the study team and helped us to interpret our findings and formulate the outline of the paper. He also provided important policy information for the discussion including resources and framing the policy issues and edited and provided detailed feedback regarding the direction of the manuscript throughout the process. LQS has been involved with the entire project from the baseline survey to the follow-up and interviews. She assisted with analyzing the data to identify the Veterans to interview an, assisted with the transcription process and initial coding. She also assisted with contributing to reviewing, editing, and formatting the manuscript. HK is the co-principal investigator of the project. She participated in team meetings as we discussed our findings and the thematic coding process. She provided her perspective as we outlined and shaped the paper. She also prepared the quantitative data for the table and edited and reviewed the manuscript.

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For case reports or case series or any article that contains identifiable photos or patient data, a statement should be included to confirm that consent of patients was obtained to publish their data.

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Bobitt, J., Clary, K., Krawitz, M. et al. Prevention, Practice, and Policy: Older US Veterans’ Perspectives on Cannabis Use. Drugs Aging 40, 59–70 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40266-022-00995-2

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