Mental health professionals who use cannabis recognized its risks but continued use | Research

The takeaway

Qualitative interviews with mental health professionals who use cannabis revealed they recognized risks including anxiety, relationship challenges, impaired driving, psychosis, and addiction, but may benefit from more education about physical health harms.

Mental health professional licensing boards, clinical supervisors, cannabis education developers

Cannabis-using clinicians recognized psychosocial risks but underestimated physical harms

What the researchers found

Mental health professionals who use cannabis identified multiple risks from both personal and clinical experience: anxiety, relational challenges, impaired driving, psychosis, cognitive impairment, educational/employment dysfunction, and addiction in some users. However, they may underestimate physical health risks, suggesting a gap in their knowledge base.

Why it matters

Mental health professionals who use cannabis occupy a unique dual perspective: they see cannabis effects in their clients and experience them personally. Understanding their risk perceptions can reveal blind spots that affect both personal use and clinical guidance.

The numbers in context

Sample included social workers, nurses, and psychotherapists; identified risks: anxiety, relational challenges, impaired driving, psychosis, cognitive impairment, educational/employment dysfunction, addiction

How the study worked

Interpretative phenomenological analysis of qualitative interviews with social workers, nurses, and psychotherapists who use cannabis and work with cannabis-consuming clients. Examined how they make sense of cannabis-related harm in both personal and professional contexts.

What this study cannot tell us

Qualitative study with small sample and no specific sample size reported. Self-selected participants willing to disclose use. Cannot generalize findings to all mental health professionals. Social desirability bias may understate risky use patterns.

How to read the evidence

Qualitative study providing rich descriptive data on an understudied population, but limited generalizability due to small, self-selected sample.

When this study was published

Published in 2021.

The bigger picture

As cannabis normalizes, understanding how healthcare professionals who use it perceive risks is important for professional regulation, clinical practice, and training. Their risk awareness may influence how they counsel clients.

Questions still open

Does personal cannabis use bias how mental health professionals counsel clients about cannabis? Are there professional practice standards needed for cannabis-using healthcare workers?

Common questions

What risks did these professionals recognize?

They identified anxiety, relationship challenges, impaired driving, psychosis, cognitive impairment, problems with education and employment, and addiction potential. Their dual perspective as users and clinicians gave them nuanced risk awareness.

What were they missing?

The study found they may benefit from more education about physical health harms from cannabis. Their awareness of psychosocial risks from clinical work was strong, but physical health effects were less recognized.

Read the original research

Cannabis Use Among Mental Health Professionals: A Qualitative Study of Cannabis-Related Risk Perceptions.

Journal of drug issues, 51(4), 679-689

View on PubMed ↗Publisher’s paper ↗

Citation

Ghelani, Amar. (2021). Cannabis Use Among Mental Health Professionals: A Qualitative Study of Cannabis-Related Risk Perceptions.. Journal of drug issues, 51(4), 679-689. https://doi.org/10.1177/00220426211032558