Grant: Catalyst Grant: Cannabis and Mental Health - Priority populations

The aim of this study is to document evidence of sponsorship from Big Cannabis related to healthcare, scientific research, and policy processes in order to understand the extent to which such activities contribute to risks to individual and community mental health. Corporate practices including lobbying, sponsorship of research, and targeted marketing, which are common across industries including tobacco, alcohol, pharmaceuticals, and food have contributed to health risks, threats to research integrity, and interference in policy processes. Anecdotal evidence suggests Big Cannabis is adopting many similar practices. Using case study methods, we will document the range and extent of Big Cannabis' relationships with health professionals, scientists, and policymakers in Canada. We will analyze these activities using Adams' PERIL (Purpose, Extent, Relevant Harm, Identifiers, Link) framework, an applied ethics approach that works to identify the nature and degree of mental health risk associated with receipt of sponsorship from Big Cannabis. Our findings will generate preliminary knowledge that can be used to inform future large-scale projects that seek to develop empirically grounded and philosophically rigorous knowledge to inform decision-makers from bedside to boardroom about the potential mental health implications of their relationships with Big Cannabis, including strategies to minimize those harms.