Marijuana use is associated with risky sexual behaviors in treatment-seeking polysubstance abusers

Abstract

Background: Multiple types of substance use are associated with HIV risk behaviors, but relatively little research has examined the association between marijuana use and risky sexual activities in treatment-seeking polysubstance abusing patients.

Objectives: This study evaluated the relationship between marijuana use and sexual behaviors in 239 patients with cocaine, opioid or alcohol use disorders who were initiating outpatient substance use treatment.

Methods: Participants completed the HIV Risk Behavior Scale and were classified into one of three groups based on their marijuana use histories: never (n = 66), past but not current use (n = 124) or current use (n = 49).

Results: Compared to never marijuana users, current and former marijuana users had a greater likelihood of having more than 50 lifetime sexual partners (odds ratio [OR] and 95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.9 [1.0-15.7] and 5.2 [1.6-17.3], respectively). Former marijuana users had increased risk of low frequency condom use with casual partners relative to never users (OR [95% CI] = 2.9 [1.1-7.6]). Moreover, current marijuana users were more likely than never users to have had more than two recent sexual partners (OR [95% CI] = 8.1 [1.94-33.44]).

Conclusion: Treatment-seeking polysubstance abusers with current or past marijuana use histories may be at greater risk of HIV infection than their counterparts who do not use marijuana. These data underscore the importance of increasing awareness about the potential association between marijuana use and increased high-risk sexual behavior among polysubstance abusing patients.

Figure 1

Average subscale scores obtained in the lifetime and past 3- month of the HIV Risk Behavior Scales. Graphs on the top depict lifetime sexual and injection drug use subscale scores, and graphs on the bottom depict past 3 months sexual and injection drug use subscale scores. Never marijuana users are shown in open bars, former marijuana users in lightly shaded bars, and current users in black bars. Error bars depict standard errors. The “p < .05” refers to results from multivariate analyses of variance evaluating omnibus differences between the three marijuana using groups.