King's College London

Many people who use cannabis do not experience any major harm, but around a quarter of them will become addicted. Cannabis addiction can cause medical harm and distress to people who use cannabis. For example, it can stop them from being able to control their use. Although small numbers of people who use cannabis seek treatment to help them manage their addiction, most do not seek treatment at all. It is also unclear how suitable current drug treatment services are for people who use cannabis. Around the world, there are different treatment approaches. In the UK, services offer general talking therapies for people who use illegal drugs. In other countries, such as Germany, there are specific talking therapies for people who use cannabis. These specific treatments are tailored to the kind of problems people experience with cannabis. The type of approach used (e.g., general, or specific) may be important for meeting the needs of people who use cannabis.

This is what we need to know:

1) What are the treatment needs of people who use cannabis in the UK?

2) How do cannabis treatment approaches, treatment rates, and levels of cannabis use vary in different countries around the world?

Here’s how we will find this out:

1) We will conduct a survey of people in the UK, who use cannabis every day. We will recruit them using an online survey. We will ask them about their cannabis use and what kind of help they might want from treatment services.

2) We will use data made available from international drug monitoring agencies. We will compare the type of treatment approaches used for cannabis problems in different countries. We will estimate levels of cannabis use and treatment rates in different countries to see what works best.

This project will inform the UK Drugs Strategy which aims to deliver world-class treatment for drugs. It could help to improve services to attract people who experience problems with their cannabis use and would like help.