Effects of Cannabis Use Among Veterans
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Authors
Bluitt, Demetria
Issue Date
2026-03
Type
Dissertation
Language
en
Keywords
Military Learners & Veteran Transition , veterans , cannabis use , PTSD
Alternative Title
Abstract
Posttraumatic stress disorder is one of the mental health problems that impact many veterans across the nation. The use of cannabis for medicinal purposes has been growing among the veteran population. The problem to be addressed in this study is cannabis use among veterans who report symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. The purpose of the quantitative correlation study is to explore the strength of association between severity of symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder with frequency of use of cannabis among the veteran population. The theoretical framework for this study was the biopsychosocial model. The study utilized a correlation design to identify the strength of the correlation between cannabis use and symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder. The target population would be veterans who served during conflicts of the War in Iraq (Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003-2011 and Operation New Dawn in instruments would be previously validated questionnaire, PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) with Life Events Checklist for DSM-5 (LEC-5) and Criterion A, as well as the Cannabis Use Disorder Identification Test-Revised (CUDIT-R). Data was collected using the two instruments from 41 veterans, of which 29 of the responses were usable. The descriptive statistics suggest that participants in this study seemed to have elevated levels of cannabis use and larger numbers of PTSD symptoms than in the general population. The findings of the Pearson correlation analysis, Kolmogorov-Smimov test, and Shapiro-Wilk test, all failed to reject the null hypothesis. The results of the data analyses indicated there was a non-significant weak, positive relationship between cannabis use and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms.