Contextual factors influencing cannabis use and behavioral economic demand in the natural environment

PROJECT SUMARY / ABSTRACT Heavy cannabis use is associated with higher likelihood of experiencing negative consequences, including motor vehicle accidents and fatalities due to cannabis-impaired driving, adolescent emergency department visits, cannabis-related psychosis, and cannabis use disorder. Understanding the factors that contribute to greater cannabis use is a clinically significant and timely priority given expansion of legalization in the U.S. Cannabis use and related problems are influenced by various contextual factors, including social context, cannabis-related cues, and next-day responsibilities (i.e., personally relevant activities such as work, caregiving, or academics). While much research has been conducted in laboratory settings, there is limited understanding of the factors influencing cannabis use in naturalistic environments. This project aims to explore these influences using behavioral economic purchase tasks and ecological momentary assessment (EMA). This study seeks to extend laboratory-based behavioral economics research to the natural environment by investigating the role of next-day responsibilities and upcoming activities on cannabis demand and consumption, analyze whether the severity of cannabis use disorder moderates these effects, and determine if cannabis formulations moderate these effects. The research team will conduct a 14-day EMA protocol with 100 community adults who use cannabis at least twice weekly. Participants will complete a morning report and 4 pseudorandom prompts per day, reporting on cannabis use and formulations consumed, cannabis demand, and upcoming responsibilities and activities. These data will be analyzed using linear mixed effects modeling to determine if the presence of upcoming activities or responsibilities and other contextual variables (e.g., social context, current location) predict the level of cannabis demand and recent cannabis consumption reported at the momentary level. Additional models will test whether increased cannabis use disorder severity (assessed by semi-structured clinical interview for DSM-5 criteria) moderates the impact of responsibilities and context on demand/consumption. Finally, we will test whether specific formulations (e.g., flower, edibles) also moderate these associations. To our knowledge, no studies have incorporated cannabis demand assessments or responsibilities into an EMA framework; thus, this innovation is expected to provide valuable insights into factors influencing cannabis use in a naturalistic setting. Our results have the potential to significantly advance contextualized behavioral economic models of cannabis use and provide clinically relevant insights into how person-level factors such as upcoming activities, social situations, the type of cannabis consumed, and addiction severity impact demand for cannabis and its consumption.