Impact of COVID19 Lockdown on Cannabis Users

COVID-19 is having and inquestionable impact on mental health in the general population so is understandable that people, globally experiencied a lot of psychological stressors in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic confinement that interfered with regular routines in their daily lifestyle. In many countries, cannabis is one of the psychotropic drugs consumed the most.

This exploratory study aimed to investigate the influence of the first portuguese lockdown on cannabis use patterns and investigate the impact in individuals wellbeing during this period, to explore main reasons and underluying factors in change drug use motives, and to establish a comparative analysis from pre-lockdown to post-lockdown.

The COVID-19 lockdown considered corresponded to the months of March, April and May 2019 and the data were collected, between October and December, 2020 with 91 subjects in the moment they presented themselves at Commission for the Dissuasion of Drug Use of Porto according to the law nr.30/2000, 29th November.

The purposeful recruitment involved only cannabis users 'diagnosed' as non reincident nor drug dependent and all subjects were evaluated with a survey questionnaire constructed in accordance with the defined objectives. Our preliminary findings reflects a initial exploration of the impact the COVID-19 pandemic and highlights the importance of examining the potential implications in this vulnerable group and to better understand how professionals can strengthen the brief intervention addressed to it. The home lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic was associated with major implications for substance consumption, diferente patterns of comsumption emerged among participants and also psychologic distress assumed.