A Survey of Health and Social Service Providers

Are Providers Ready for Legalization? 

In April 2017, the Government of Canada introduced legislation to legalize and regulate cannabis. For what will be a watershed moment in Canadian history with the pending change from prohibition and criminalization to legalization and regulation, there is a need to ensure that health and social service providers are prepared to respond to the needs of people who use cannabis and other substances. To supplement the community consultation work done for CPHA’s project entitled, “A public health approach to cannabis (and other substances): Prevention, health promotion, surveillance and capacity building,” we conducted an online survey to explore providers’ knowledge and perceptions of cannabis consumption. The multiple choice survey was available online from January 15th to March 30th, 2018 and collected 505 responses. Participants worked in a range of different sectors including public health, health care, and social services and the survey was disseminated via CPHA’s social media outlets.

The main objective of this survey was to get a sense of providers’ and professionals’ attitudes and preparedness in relation to the legalization of cannabis. To this end, many of the findings from the data collected from our community consultations were confirmed by this survey. When asked about the impacts of the legalization of cannabis, 54.9% felt legalizing cannabis would have positive social effects for Canadians while only 35.5% felt that legalizing cannabis would have a positive effect on the health of Canadians. This may indicate that many see the benefit of eliminating criminalization, but this is seen separately from the potential harms to health as a consequence of consumption. In a separate question concerns around youth brain development, drug impaired driving, and workplace safety were identified as top priorities that need addressing in the context of a public health approach. 

One of the central tenets of CPHA’s project is to shed light on the barriers for providers opening conversations about cannabis with their clients. When asked whether participants had access to education and training in the form of professional development on several cannabis related topics, 65.8% of providers indicated they were either not aware of, or did not have access to, education and training related to cannabis and unintentional injuries (e.g. drug impaired driving) and 51.8% had no access to education or training on the topic of harm reduction and lowering risk in regards to cannabis. This is indicative of a gap that many health and social service providers are facing in terms of their needs to properly inform their clients on the benefits and risks related to cannabis consumption and the need for more accessible training and tools. In fact, nearly three quarters (72.1%) of providers who agreed with feeling comfortable in a conversation with their patients or clients about their cannabis consumption felt that they were aware of the scientific evidence around the harmful effects of cannabis consumption while only 37.5% of providers who did not express comfort felt that they were knowledgeable on the topic. In order to enable conversations between health and social service providers and their clients on the topic of cannabis, increasing availability of educational tools and resources that are evidence based is of the utmost importance.

See the full report for a more in-depth analysis.