Abstract
Introduction: Effective July 1, 2018, the smoking of recreational cannabis will become legal in Canada, and Provincial legislation will soon follow. The objective of this paper is to determine how Canadian universities are responding to this new reality via provision of web-based education and awareness materials through campus health centres. The paper explores what framework might exist or be created to partner academic health sciences librarians with student health services in the provision of best practice research for students and clinicians. 
 Method: A scan of English Canadian university websites was undertaken to determine whether information on cannabis or marijuana directed at students was available, and whether identifiable resources in the area of health science librarians or subject guides were available. 
 Results: Results of a website scan indicated that only 10.4% of universities have material available on cannabis whereas some 62% have qualified professional librarians associated with health sciences who could provide guidance on such material.
 Discussion: Academic librarians and libraries already play a pivotal role in the retention and support of student academic goals through liaison, reference and instruction. There is precedent as well in some institutions for library partnerships with student services areas such as career services, accessibility and common book programs. This paper suggest that the complex factors related to cannabis education and health literacy in general present a unique opportunity for academic health science librarians to engage and partner with university health services and clinicians and grow the presence and influence of librarian support on university campuses.
Highlights
Effective 17 October 2018, recreational or adult-use cannabis becomes legal in Canada, and Provincial legislation will soon follow
How the impact of this new reality will be felt on university campuses across the country is unknown, but there is extensive literature on both increases in consumption and on the harms and impacts associated with cannabis use that universities and university health services must navigate [2,3,4]
Two universities had embedded materials on their own webpages, and the rest provided external resource links to either governmental agency resource pages, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) or to community resource pages not affiliated with a healthcare agency or resource
Summary
Effective 17 October 2018, recreational or adult-use cannabis becomes legal in Canada, and Provincial legislation will soon follow. Methods: A scan of English Canadian university websites was undertaken to determine whether information on cannabis or marijuana directed at students was available, and whether identifiable resources in the area of health science librarians or subject guides were available. Results: Results of a website scan of 78 English-language Canadian Universities indicated that only 8 universities (10.25%) have links to material available on cannabis or marijuana ( one link was unpopulated) whereas some 49 universities (63%) have qualified professional librarians associated with health sciences who could provide guidance on such material. The objective in this paper is to determine how Canadian universities, prior to legalization, have presented relevant information on cannabis or marijuana to students via student health services websites and to use this information as a point of departure to determine potential health literacy opportunities and partnerships between university libraries and health services.
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