Honors College Thesis
 

Observing the relationship between chronic pain and cannabis use and opioid misuse among college students (ages 18-24) : differences by state cannabis legalization

Public Deposited

Downloadable Content

Download PDF
https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/honors_college_theses/m326m944w

Descriptions

Attribute NameValues
Creator
Abstract
  • As laws regarding medical and recreational cannabis use are changing across the United States, one must begin to understand the effects among individuals with chronic pain. Specifically, it is unclear how legalization may change their use of marijuana and opioids to self-medicate or for recreational use. To address these questions, I examined how the substance use of young adult college students with and without pain differs based on state legalization. Data were drawn from a 2018 survey administered nationally by the National College Health Assessment. The sample comprises all undergraduate college students (n=65,137) ages 18-24 from 117 institutions across 34 states. Students self-reported cannabis use within 30 days, opiate misuse within the past year, and whether they had one of several types of pain. Students who reported pain used more cannabis than students who were not in pain, the most used cannabis was in states with Recreational Cannabis Legalization (RCL), the second most used were in states with Medical Cannabis Legalization (MCL), and lastly, the states who had neither. Opioid misuse followed the same pattern. However, there was no evidence that differences between students with and without pain depended on legalization status. In conclusion, students with pain are more likely to use cannabis and misuse opioids than other students, and student use is higher in states with RCL and MCL.
  • Keywords: Recreational Cannabis Legalization, Medical Cannabis Legalization, Opiate misuse, Pain
Contributor
Resource Type
Date Issued
Degree Level
Degree Name
Degree Field
Degree Grantor
Commencement Year
Advisor
Committee Member
Non-Academic Affiliation
Rights Statement
Publisher
Peer Reviewed
Language

Relationships

Parents:

This work has no parents.

In Collection:

Items

Thumbnail Title Date Uploaded Visibility Actions
file details GabrielaCastillo2023.pdf 2023-06-13 Public Download