Exploring Medically Perceived Benefits, Use and Interest in Psychedelics and Cannabinoids
Condition: PTSD; Anxiety; Anxiety Disorders; Depression; Depressive Disorder; Psychological; Psychedelic Experiences; Psychedelic Drug Dependence
MeSH terms: Substance-Related Disorders; Anxiety Disorders; Depressive Disorder
Study type: Observational

Summary: 
      The primary objective of this study is to collect insights from first responders and military
      personnel on their need for, use of, and interest in physical and/or mental health medical
      marijuana or psychedelic-assisted therapy programs. These preliminary data will help to
      inform and guide the development of a larger patient-oriented study and the design of a
      clinical program geared towards enhancing therapy treatments for first responders and
      military personnel.
    

Detailed description: 
      Members of first response teams including police, firefighters, paramedics, and military
      personnel in Canada, the United States, Oceana, and Europe will be asked to participate. The
      majority of these teams are unionized, consisting of municipal, provincial and federally
      organized unions throughout Canada, United States, Oceana and Europe.

      Whenever possible, the research team will provide an invitation to its members via union
      representatives. These unions are a trusted source for first responders and military
      personnel as they are intended to have the best interests of these first responders in mind.
      The union representatives possess the contact information of the first responders and
      military personnel. The unions routinely circulate e-mails to members that include
      information relevant for members such as upcoming events, important meetings, team activities
      on and off-duty, and opportunities to participate in research.

      Emails with the link to the survey will be circulated to members approximately every month
      for 3 months, or until at least 1000 participants have responded. The link to the survey may
      also be shared through personal connections among first responders and/or word of mouth.

      Participants will be sent a link to open an anonymous survey which they can complete at their
      location and time of choosing. Once the survey link has been accessed by a potential
      participant, background information will be provided regarding the project that includes an
      informed consent statement. Participants may leave the survey at any time should they wish to
      discontinue.

      The survey will be distributed to first responders and military personnel using an online
      questionnaire. This survey will contain questions about basic demographics, history of mental
      health conditions, satisfaction with current life status, past use of cannabis and other
      psychedelic substances, and interest and potential barriers in trying psychedelic or medical
      marijuana-assisted physical or mental health therapy in a research or clinical context. The
      Brief Inventory of Psychosocial Functioning (13) and a subset of questions from the National
      Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Quick Screen (14) have been integrated into the survey to
      enhance reliability and validity of results.

      The survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete. Once the survey has been
      submitted, participants will have the option to click a link to enter their email address
      using a separate collection form, if they would like to be contacted for future research
      opportunities.

      The list of email addresses will not be linked to the survey results.

      Data will be analyzed from all completed (fully or partially) and submitted surveys. Every
      question will contain a "Prefer Not to Say" option if a response is mandatory.
    

Intervention name(s): Cannabis
Intervention type(s): Drug
Intervention description(s): Recreational Cannabis
Other intervention name(s): Recreational Cannabis
Observational model: Cohort
Time perspective: Cross-Sectional
Sampling method: Non-Probability Sample
Study population: 
        Approximately 10,000 first responders and/or military personnel will be asked to
        participate in the survey.

        Assuming a 20-30% response rate, the investigators expect approximately 2500 individual
        responses.