Aims: In Canada, the impact of home cultivation on cannabis use, health outcomes, and associated risk behaviours remains largely unknown, despite nearly 10% of Canadians reporting home cultivation as a supply source. The objectives of the study are two-fold: (1) explore sociodemographic variables associated with home cultivation trends before and after legalization; (2) examine the relationship between home cultivation and cannabis-related risk behaviours.
Methods: Data from the National Cannabis Survey was analyzed to look at how rates of home cultivation vary across a range of sociodemographic variables (e.g. age, gender, marital status, Province) before and after legalization. Logistic regression was used to explore whether home cultivation is a significant predictor of three cannabis-related risk behaviours: dependency, impaired driving, and use in the workplace.
Results: Home cultivation was most common among males, 55+ year olds, those living in the Atlantic Provinces, and those who report using for both medical and non-medical reasons. Notably, there appears to be a trend towards decreasing rates of home cultivation post-legalization. Logistic regression analyses of risk behaviours suggest that home cultivation is a significant predictor of driving after cannabis use and workplace use, but not cannabis dependence.
Conclusions: The association between home cultivation and risk behaviours merits attention and demonstrates a need for more tailored education, prevention, and policy interventions to target this unique subpopulation of Canadian home cultivators. These findings also provide important insights for evaluating and improving the existing regulatory framework as we approach the three-year legislative review of the Cannabis Act.