Hudson Reddon

In 2018, Canada became only the second country to legalize the cultivation, distribution, sale and consumption of recreational cannabis. At the same time, Canada and the United States continued to see unprecedented numbers of opioid overdose deaths, with British Columbia declaring this crisis a public health emergency in 2016. The intersection of these evolving cannabis policies with the drug toxicity crisis has sparked scientific and public interest into how cannabis use may impact substance use trajectories among people most at risk of overdose. My research objective is to conduct innovative longitudinal research to elucidate the risks, as well as the potential benefits, of evolving cannabis use/access patterns among people at highest risk of overdose and other substance-related harms. Over the next five years, I will leverage three ongoing NIH-funded prospective cohort studies with a five-year CIHR Operating Grant, and a three-year, phase II, placebo-controlled trial, to generate evidence that will inform ongoing monitoring of, and response to, the public health impacts of cannabis legalization and the opioid overdose crisis.

Affiliation

University: University of British Columbia
Faculty: Medicine
Department: Medicine
Position: Post-doctoral Fellow