When Alcohol Meets Cannabis
Written by Jaishree Ramamoorthi
Edited by Chloe Chou
September 27th, 2023
Edited by Chloe Chou
September 27th, 2023
Research
It’s no secret that many college students engage in simultaneous alcohol and marijuana (SAM) use even when warned against its negative implications. However, many students use these substances for various motives, insinuating that the solution is more nuanced than simply avoiding substance use. Researchers from the Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University School of Public Health and the Center of Alcohol and Substance Studies at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, investigate the specific motives and manner of SAM use by identifying the relationships between different motives and consequences, as well as whether the motive influences the number of alcohol and cannabis products consumed.
The research team recruited college students across 3 states in the U.S. to report their SAM use in a general screening survey. Out of those who responded, researchers selected individuals with consistent SAM-use days. They sent them a baseline survey to compare with the follow-up survey sent 3 months later. During the time in between, researchers sent repeated daily surveys (RDS) to record the types and number of alcohol and cannabis products consumed as well as any negative consequences that followed. Examples of specific negative consequences examined include experiencing hangovers, nausea/vomiting, blackouts, self-injuries, drunk/high driving, rude/aggressive behavior, and unwanted sex.
The research team found that certain motives were significant to experiencing specific consequences. Motives to increase the effects of intoxication (effect-enhancement) connect to nausea; motives to socialize connect to the number of consequences and hangovers; and motives to cope connect to blackouts. On the other hand, being offered substances (offered motives) was not significant.
Aside from this, the results displayed that effect-enhancement motives, social motives, and offered motives were significant in indirectly affecting consequence outcomes based on the number of alcohol products consumed, but not the number of cannabis products. Regarding coping motives, the number of alcohol and cannabis products was not a factor.
These results make it clear that specific motives influenced the type of negative consequences individuals would experience on SAM-use days. Specifically, the study found that effect-enhancement, social, and offered motives resulted in increasing the number of alcohol products consumed, which thereby increased the number of negative consequence outcomes.
While this study effectively displayed the relationships between the motives behind SAM use and how they affect the number of substances consumed, more research is needed to investigate the negative effects of cannabis use. The preliminary results connect coping motives to an increase in cannabis products consumed. Future studies should examine the SAM use effects on consequences specific to marijuana usage. With further research, individuals can better understand their reasons for SAM use and when to avoid it.
References
Stevens, A. K., Boyle, H. K., Sokolovsky, A. W., White, H. R., & Jackson, K. M. (2022). Nuanced relations between simultaneous alcohol and cannabis use motives and negative consequences among college students: The role of multiple product use. Experimental and Clinical Psychopharmacology, 30(5), 593–608. https://doi.org/10.1037/pha0000454