Perfilando los consumidores de cannabis que autocultivan a pequeña escala

Abstract

Cannabis is the most widely used worldwide drug with prevalence between 2.8 and 5.0% of the adult population. Increasing use of cannabis has carried out to an escalation in home growing for self-consumption. As a consequence, a field study to contrast if the domestic cannabis growers exhibited a different sociodemographic profile, a consumption pattern, a problematic use risk, dependence level, as well as on the clinical symptoms and related disorders, was designed. As for this, 761 cannabis users, 480 males and 281 females, of whom 251 were homegrowers for personal use (182 males and 69 females), with ages ranging from 18 to 60 years (M = 26.36, SD = 5.68), answered to a sociodemohgraphic and consumption pattern questionnaire, and to cannabis problematic use, cannabis dependence, cannabis abuse, and nicotine and alcohol dependence scales. The results showed that homegrowers are mostly males, with low academic training and working. Moreover, homegrowers have a higher cannabis consumption rates, are more implied in cannabis selling, polysubstance use, and with more psychosocial problem driven from cannabis use. Finally, homegrowers inform of higher problematic cannabis use and a higher level of cannabis dependence. The implications of the results for prevention police, and treatment of the cannabis use disorder are discussed.