Table 2.
Students awareness of the therapeutic and side effects of cannabis and their attitudes toward cannabis abuse and legalisation
| Questions and statements | Recreational marijuana use |
Year of the study |
|||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| yes N (%) |
no N (%) |
p | third N (%) |
fifth N (%) |
sixth N (%) |
p | |||
| Knowledge | I am familiar with the possible therapeutic effect of cannabis | yes | 99 (94.3) | 159 (75.4) | <0.001 | 99 (76.2) | 81 (89.0) | 78 (82.1) | 0.052 |
| no | 6 (5.7) | 52 (24.6) | 31 (23.8) | 10 (11.0) | 17 (17.9) | ||||
| I am familiar with the side effects of cannabis | yes | 87 (82.9) | 118 (55.9) | <0.001 | 83 (63.8) | 67 (73.6) | 55 (57.9) | 0.079 | |
| no | 18 (17.1) | 93 (44.1) | 47 (36.2) | 24 (26.4) | 40 (42.1) | ||||
| Abuse | The use of cannabis for therapeutic purposes can cause addiction | yes | 48 (45.7) | 148 (70.1) | <0.001 | 83 (63.8) | 56 (61.5) | 57 (60.0) | 0.836 |
| no | 57 (54.3) | 63 (29.9) | 47 (36.2) | 35 (39.5) | 38 (40.0) | ||||
| The use of cannabis for therapeutic purposes would cause drug abuse | yes | 88 (83.8) | 195 (92.4) | 0.031 | 117 (90.0) | 83 (91.2) | 83 (87.4) | 0.677 | |
| no | 17 (16.2) | 16 (7.6) | 13 (10.0) | 8 (8.8) | 12 (12.6) | ||||
| The use of cannabis for therapeutic purposes may be the gateway to hard drugs use | yes | 45 (42.9) | 134 (63.5) | 0.001 | 76 (58.5) | 58 (63.7) | 45 (47.4) | 0.068 | |
| no | 60 (57.1) | 77 (36.5) | 54 (41.5) | 33 (26.3) | 50 (52.6) | ||||
| Legislation | The use of cannabis requires the development of clear guidelines | yes | 98 (93.3) | 202 (95.7) | 0.519 | 121 (93.1) | 89 (97.8) | 90 (28.5) | 0.287 |
| no | 7 (6.7) | 9 (4.3) | 9 (7.9) | 2 (2.2) | 5 (1.6) | ||||
| I am aware that in some countries therapeutic use of cannabis has been approved | yes | 103 (98.1) | 195 (92.4) | 0.073 | 122 (93.8) | 87 (95.6) | 89 (93.7) | 0.817 | |
| no | 2 (1.9) | 16 (7.6) | 8 (6.2) | 4 (4.4) | 6 (6.3) | ||||
| I am familiar with the current legalization process of cannabis in Serbia | yes | 57 (54.3) | 79 (37.4) | 0.006 | 52 (40.0) | 46 (50.5) | 38 (40.0) | 0.230 | |
| no | 48 (45.7) | 132 (62.6) | 78 (60.0) | 45 (49.5) | 57 (60.0) | ||||
| The use of cannabis for therapeutic purposes should be legalized in Serbia | yes | 90 (85.7) | 150 (71.1) | 0.006 | 94 (72.3) | 67 (73.6) | 79 (83.2) | 0.14 | |
| no | 15 (14.3) | 61 (28.9) | 36 (27.7) | 24 (26.4) | 16 (16.8) | ||||