“Need Everyone Helping to Keep Off Because Everyone Helping to Keep On” – Reducing Harms from Cannabis use in Remote Indigenous Australian Communities Involves More Than Just Users

Abstract

Background: Heavy cannabis use in remote Indigenous Australian communities potentially contributes to existing health disparities. Community members’ perceptions of cannabis harms will support harm-minimization in these settings. Objective: To describe perceived cannabis harms reported by a cohort of Indigenous Australians living in small, isolated communities as an indication of their existing resources for change. Method: Inductive thematic analysis of 407 semi-structured interviews with participants in a cohort study in three remote communities in Cape York in far north Queensland (Australia) revealed major areas of concern about cannabis. Three attitudinal categories were defined according to reported cannabis impacts and urgency for change: 1- “LOW CONCERN” said cannabis was a low priority community issue; 2- “SOME CONCERN” tolerated cannabis use but identified personal or community-level concerns; and 3- “HIGH CONCERN” expressed strong aversion to cannabis and identified serious personal or community-level harms. The characteristics and the patterns of concerns were summarized across the groups. Results: “Category 1- LOW CONCERN” (n = 107), mostly current users, emphasized personal “financial impacts” and “stress.” “Category 2 – SOME CONCERN” (n = 141) perceived community level impacts warranting systematic action, particularly on “employment”; and “Category 3 – HIGH CONCERN” (n = 159), most of the never users, emphasized concerns for families and youth. Irrespective of use history, the cohort reported financial and abstinence-related stress, overlapping alcohol issues and generally endorsed alleviating impacts on children and youth. Conclusion: Nearly ubiquitous experience with cannabis harms and impacts in this cohort suggests resources for harm reduction including family and cultural obligation, stress relief, financial management, and engagement are available across all community members, not just users.

Keywords:

• Cannabis
• Indigenous Australians
• vulnerable populations
• social support

Acknowledgements

The authors sincerely thank the interview participants for sharing their stories and the three study communities, who must remain anonymous, for their warm welcome. Community leaders and service providers are acknowledged for their cooperation and guidance. Members of the research team are acknowledged for their contributions during the project - Data collection: Yana O’Brien, Beatrice Lawrence, Winston Paul, Jan Robertson, Ray Genn, Michelle Fitts, Susan Jacups, Bernadette Rogerson, Brett Walsh, Lomas Amini, Eddie Buli, Jo Jarden, Celia Demarchi, and India Bohanna. Thanks to Melissa Kirk for support with data processing. Thanks to Mick Dowie, Garry Hunter, John ‘Stretch’ Harris, and Kevin Goan of the Queensland Police Service for their support to establish the study.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.