Grant: Partnerships for Cannabis Policy Evaluation

The purpose of the current study is to evaluate the implementation and impact of cannabis-related policies to inform public health and safety. Our multidisciplinary team of leading experts in cannabis, substance use and policy evaluation, will triangulate data from multiple sources to not only evaluate cannabis policy impact, but to also understand how and why cannabis policies have an impact. The four key objectives are: to evaluate the intended and unintended impacts (both positive and negative) of cannabis policies in Ontario on the following cannabis policy outcomes: (1) Consumption of cannabis (patterns and cannabis use disorder) and other psychoactive substances, cannabis related harm to others, and impacts on mental health; (2) Impact on the health care and treatment systems; (3) Cannabis-impaired driving and injuries; (4) Understand how policy implementation may mitigate the negative consequences or enhance the positive consequences of cannabis use. Each objective will examine subgroup differences, including a sex/gender analysis. Our objectives have been derived in close collaboration with our decision makers from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. Leveraging existing provincial resources with additional new sources of data, our team will comprehensively assess cannabis policy impacts based on the 10 core indicators of public health impact of cannabis 5 previously identified (Fischer et al., 2018) supplemented by additional indicators identified by key stakeholders. Our findings will be disseminated using open science practices. We will work closely with the Health Canada funded Champions Circle for Cannabis Knowledge Exchange Hub to ensure that the findings are disseminated to key stakeholders across the province.