Cannabis use has become increasingly common amongst patients with PTSD [83]. Although there is mixed data regarding the use of cannabis as a treatment for PTSD, current research has shown a strong positive association between PTSD symptom severity and daily cannabis use [43]. There is evidence that supports the notion that individuals with PTSD use cannabis as a means for coping with symptoms, primarily involving insomnia in contrast to anxiety-related symptoms [10, 56]. This finding, however, has been challenged as Metrik and colleagues found that, while individuals with PTSD report using cannabis to cope with sleep disturbances, patients later report significantly poorer sleep quality and physical health [105]. In terms of PTSD symptom severity, most data supports the association of cannabis users having a higher likelihood of presenting with PTSD symptoms, experiencing heightened negative affect, and showing improvements in symptoms following cannabis abstinence [91, 98, 141, 153]. Moreover, when an individual meets PTSD criteria and concurrently uses cannabis, they typically experience increased withdrawal and craving [8]. Other studies either show mixed support for both the potential harms [26, 62, 104,
