Elevated Behavioral Economic Demand for Alcohol in Co-Users of Alcohol and Cannabis

Abstract

Co-use of cannabis and alcohol is associated with increased drinking and other negative consequences relative to use of alcohol alone. One potential explanation for these differences is overvaluation of alcohol (e.g., alcohol demand) among co-users, similar to established overvaluation of alcohol among tobacco and alcohol co-users. This study examined differences in alcohol demand between an alcohol and cannabis co-user group and an alcohol-only group. Method: A large sample of adult drinkers (n = 1,643, 54% female) was recruited through an online crowdsourcing site (Amazon Mechanical Turk). Of the full sample, 476 participants reported weekly or greater cannabis use in the past 6 months (co-user group); 888 reported never using cannabis in the past 6 months (alcohol-only group). Assessments included a validated alcohol purchase task and self-report measures of alcohol and cannabis use. Results: Co-users reported significantly higher alcohol consumption across the elastic portion of the alcohol demand curve (i.e., $1.50-$9.00/drink). Analyses of covariance controlling for alcohol use and demographics revealed significantly higher breakpoint (p = .025) and Omax (p = .002) and significantly lower elasticity (p < .003) in the co-user group. Intensity and Pmax did not significantly differ between groups. Conclusions: Co-users of cannabis and alcohol overvalue alcohol compared with individuals who drink alcohol but do not use cannabis. This study is generally consistent with prior studies on alcohol and tobacco co-users, providing converging evidence that polysubstance use is associated with overvaluation of alcohol. These fi ndings have important implications for treatment and prevention, particularly in the context of changes in cannabis legalization.

Statistically derived patterns of behavioral economic risk among heavy-drinking college students: A latent profile analysis.

“…The results also showed that individuals with greater cannabis use were more likely to be in the HRHD class relative to the MRLD class, which is consistent with studies that have shown that concurrent cannabis use is associated with greater levels of alcohol demand (Morris et al, 2018; Naudé, Reed, Thornton, & Amlung, 2020; Ramirez, Cadigan, & Lee, 2020), lower substance-free reinforcement (Meshesha, Dennhardt, & Murphy, 2015), and higher rates of problematic alcohol use (Naudé et al, 2020). This result extends the findings of previous studies that demonstrate the association of polysubstance use and maladaptive decision-making.…”

Dual use of alcohol and cannabis among college students: A reinforcer pathologies approach.

“…The present experiment examined relations between demand and delay discounting in college students who endorsed either alcohol use or dual use of alcohol and cannabis. Consistent with Morris et al (2018), dual users reported significantly greater demand for alcoholic drinks and had higher rates of problematic use as defined by the AUDIT. Specifically, 68% of participants endorsing dual use ( n = 58) met criteria for harmful alcohol consumption compared with 23% ( n = 11) of participants who endorsed only alcohol use.…”

Getting high to cope with COVID-19: Modelling the associations between cannabis demand, coping motives, and cannabis use and problems

“…Also, because our sample was drawn from a larger sample of Canadian drinkers it is possible that cannabis use motives in our sample may have differed systematically from those of cannabis-only users. Co-use of cannabis and alcohol is associated with elevated alcohol demand ( Morris et al, 2018 ), so it is possible that co-use may also systematically impact both cannabis demand and motives for use. Finally, we acknowledge that our sample had a rather high level of income (greater than 50% of participants reported an annual household income > $80,000).…”