Beyond struggle: A strengths-based qualitative study of cannabis use among queer and trans youth in Québec.

BACKGROUND: Queer and trans (QT) youth report higher rates of cannabis use than their cisgender and heterosexual peers. Explanations for this have overwhelmingly focused on the difficulties QT youth face, while little research has examined how cannabis use can relate to QT youth's strengths. We sought to explore how cannabis use could be involved in the experiences of QT youth from a strengths-based perspective. METHODS: We conducted a QT youth-led, community-based study composed of 27 semi-structured interviews with QT young adults aged 21-25 years and living in Québec who use(d) cannabis regularly. Through reflexive thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2019), we used a strengths-based lens informed by the Minority Strengths Model (Perrin et al., 2020) to explore how cannabis use featured in participants' efforts to survive and thrive. RESULTS: We generated three themes representing how cannabis featured in participants' efforts to survive and thrive. First, cannabis was used to facilitate the production of an authentic QT self, a process that involved self-discovery, introspection, exploration, awareness, and expression. Cannabis supported, accompanied, and/or complicated this process. Second, cannabis use (and non-use) was involved in building QT community and connection, which constituted a crux of participants' wellbeing. Third, cannabis was used to face adversity, such as marginalization, QT oppression, mental health challenges, and structural under-resourcing. This adversity contrasted experiences of QT identities themselves, which were described as a source of joy and pride. CONCLUSION: Our analysis illustrates many ways in which cannabis use (and non-use) features in QT youth's efforts to survive and thrive. As a result, we encourage loved ones, clinicians, researchers and policy makers to adopt a view of QT cannabis use that is expansive and inclusive of QT youth's strengths.

This is your brain on drug education: Putting young people with lived experience at the center of drug education.

Get Sensible, a project by Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy (CSSDP), is an entirely youth-led cannabis education initiative funded by Health Canada that challenges traditional approaches to cannabis education by prioritizing harm reduction, evidence-based information, lived experience, and non-judgmental conversations through innovative peer-to-peer models. In this narrative reflection, the Get Sensible team explores the necessity of centering young people in the development and implementation of cannabis education initiatives, drawing on their experience developing and disseminating the "Sensible Cannabis Education Booklets", an illustrated series covering a range of cannabis topics in an accessible, intersectional and engaging manner. The positive reception and impact of this campaign is a reflection of the power of truly youth-led projects for authentically connecting with young people to mobilize information in language they relate to and through mediums that resonate with them. This work considers Get Sensible's outreach strategy and approach by evaluating the impact of meeting young people where they are at, whether through social media or pop-up tabling in novel settings (e.g. skateparks and beaches). This reflection details the value of hiring youth to lead every aspect of the project and highlights the benefits of youth-led project design and execution, including the development of print and digital resources, video series, social media content, focus groups and workshops. Through meaningful youth engagement, Get Sensible empowers young people to make informed choices about cannabis use and contribute to the development of effective, evidence-based cannabis education resources and policies.