Background/Case Studies: The national blood inventory continues to decrease as a result of donor attrition, illness, ageing out and relocation. Inclusion of new donor demographics, including cannabis consumers, is critical to maintain the blood donor pool in light of increasing blood needs.
Study
Design/Methods: Twenty-four cannabis dispensary sponsored blood drives took place over an eight-month period through an established Blood Donor Center. Total blood collection and procurement data including projected, scheduled, registered, deferred, quantity not sufficient (QNS), apheresis, average per drive collection rate and first-time donors, were obtained and compared with blood donor center historical data.
Results/Findings: A total of 648 donations were anticipated among the 24 dispensary sponsored blood drives, with 613 donors who actually registered (95% actualization rate). This yielded 25.5 units per drive compared with baseline minimum of 20 units. 544 donors registered through the blood donor center portal, whereas 613 actually registered on site due to 69 (11.3% increase) walk in donors. Of the 613 registered donors, 546 were collected; with 67 (10.9%) deferrals, similar to the blood center deferral average. Of the 546 collected donors, 37 (6.8%) yielded double red units via apheresis collection. Only 27 of 546 collections (4.9%) were QNS, compared with 7.13% blood center average. 314 of 613 registered donors (51%) were first time donors (compared with 25% average) and up to 2/3 of drives occurring at a dispensary more than once were repeat donors. Conclusions: Cannabis consuming blood donors are an ideal blood donor population to consider maintaining and augment the national blood inventory as they represent high first time and repeat blood donorship, average deferral rate and lower QNS rate. Cultivating this demographic should be encouraged to decrease the threat to the national blood inventory.
Importance of research: The national blood inventory continues to suffer shortages and requires new blood donors to assuage and remedy this continuing nadir. Cannabis consumers are an important demographic to consider as they have shown themselves to be community centric first time and repeat donors as well as successful blood drive participants to significantly improve national blood availability.
