Medical Patients' Awareness, Perspectives, and Experiences with Contaminated Cannabis

Concerns about contamination in medical cannabis products have garnered media attention, but there is limited evidence in the literature documenting patient and consumer experiences. With growing public interest in medical cannabis and potential health hazards associated with contamination exposures, there is a need to examine patients' perspectives of and experiences with contaminated medical cannabis products, program structures, and medical cannabis safety. Our objectives were to: (1) determine medical cannabis patients' knowledge of possible contaminated medical cannabis products, (2) document medical cannabis patients' experiences with possibly contaminated products, (3) describe medical cannabis patients' trust in sources of information about medical cannabis product contamination, and (4) describe patients' perspectives of Florida's current policies related to contamination.

The Health Belief Model was used as a conceptual framework to guide the study, which employed a cross-sectional study design to survey Florida medical cannabis patients over the age of 21. The 24-item survey assessed patient-reported experiences and perspectives on medical cannabis contamination and was hosted via Qualtrics. Participant recruitment was conducted via a contact registry of 2,000 Florida medical cannabis patients. Descriptive statistics for all survey items were assessed using IBM SPSS statistical software and qualitative data were coded in Microsoft Excel.

In both quantitative and qualitative findings, respondents reported low knowledge of potential medical cannabis contaminants and lacked educational resources for identifying contamination. Respondents reported they had moderately higher trust in information from medical cannabis doctors or university researchers than information produced by the state. Around 15% of respondents reported purchasing medical cannabis products they believed to be contaminated, and 25% of respondents purchased product they were uncomfortable consuming due to quality issues like lack of medicinal effect or bad odor. Respondents also had policy change desires like allowing home grow, increased product testing, and allowing patients to see their products before purchase.

Cannabis product contamination education appears to be needed in medical cannabis programs. Participants who are uninformed about contaminants may be at much greater risk of consuming a contaminated product and experiencing adverse health reactions. The research team determined that medical cannabis programs should address the potential for medical cannabis product contamination in their policies and structure, as well as alter policies that influence patients purchasing contaminated products. Researchers should continue exploring medical cannabis patients' knowledge and experiences with product contamination, state testing efforts, and labeling consistency.