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Fatima Zahra Ramdani, Mohamed Merzouki, Laila Lahlou, Jalal Doufik, Khalid Mouhadi, Saliha Hamri, Khadija Akebour, Said Boujraf & Ismail Rammouz
To cite this article: Fatima Zahra Ramdani, Mohamed Merzouki, Laila Lahlou, Jalal Doufik, Khalid Mouhadi, Saliha Hamri, Khadija Akebour, Said Boujraf & Ismail Rammouz (2025)
Beliefs and attitudes of young towards cannabis legislation and associated factors: a crosssectional study in Morocco,
International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 30:1, 2470204, DOI: 10.1080/02673843.2025.2470204 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2025.2470204
ABSTRACT In Morocco, the legislation of cannabis marks a significant political shift that warrants thorough analysis. This study aims to identify the attitudes of young Moroccans towards the new cannabis regulations and their perceptions of its future consequences. A questionnaire was administered to a sample of 4040 participants, including high school and university students in southern Morocco. The results revealed that females were significantly more likely to be opposed to medical cannabis use (MCU) compared to males and believed more strongly that the law would discourage users from abstaining. Additionally, females were significantly more likely to be against the recreational use of cannabis (RCU). In contrast, tobacco smokers, cannabis users, and participants with depression were more favourable towards MCU legislation. Further studies on young people’s perceptions of cannabis and its effects remain crucial for public health and prevention policy-makers.
ARTICLE HISTORY Received 1 August 2024 Accepted 17 February 2025
KEYWORDS Legislation; cannabis; attitudes; Morocco Introduction Cannabis use is widespread in many societies, despite political, economic and socio-cultural differences among them.
Cannabis remains one of the most preferred drugs among many populations, especially adolescents and young adults. Some 219 million people (4% of the world’s population) experimented with cannabis in 2021 (Bremond, 2022). The same is true in Europe : 8% of European adults, including 22.6 million aged 15 to 64, used cannabis in 2022 (European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, 2023). In Morocco, the only figures for the prevalence of drug use in the general Moroccan population come from the results of the national community survey carried out in 2003 by the Ministry of Health on a sample of 6000 people aged 15 and over, which showed a lifetime prevalence of 4.1% for the use of psychoactive substances, and that dependence on a substance was 2.8% (Kadri et al., 2010a). In terms of consumption preferences, tobacco remains the most widely used drug in Morocco, followed by cannabis in 3 forms : smoke joints, smoked leaves or resin-based cakes (Rammouz et al., 2020). In December 2020, the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs reclassified cannabis and its resin as a medical drug under strict international control, with the aim of facilitating research..
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Beliefs and attitudes of young towards cannabis legislation and associated factors a cross-sectional study in Morocco
