Grant: Project Grant

Despite major advancements in treatment and care, people living with HIV (PLWH) continue to experience symptoms related to medications, side effects, and HIV-related complications. Poorly managed symptoms can have a negative impact on the life and the health of PLWH. Symptom management can be challenging for PLWH for multiple reasons. Yet, research on this topic is fairly limited. It is estimated that as many as many as 14 to 37% of PLWH use cannabis to help manage symptoms such as appetite loss, wasting, nausea, vomiting, pain, anxiety, depression, stress, and insomnia. However, they tend to face important barriers to access medical cannabis and limited choices of product. As such, they continue to rely primarily on illegal sources to access cannabis. Canada is expected to legalize cannabis in 2018. This shift in policy could potentially improve symptom management for PLWH. Over the course of this study, we will interview PLWH who use cannabis for symptom management every year, for a total of 3 years. This will allow us to understand their needs, how legalization impacts them, and their use of cannabis in this changing context.