Cannabis use continues to increase among college students in North America due to a number of reasons related to increased legality, low harm perception, claims of health benefits, etc. While the general science behind the effects of the substance is still developing, the sociological characterization of cannabis is also perpetually being investigated. Motivating factors for cannabis use have been found to vary widely from person to person, and even between demographics, creating an increased demand for delineation as to who uses cannabis and why they choose to do so. This study aims to identify the perceptions of cannabis usage norms in a population of Canadian students.
The study’s sample is composed of 753 students from the University of Alberta, recruited from an online survey system, meeting the primary eligibility criteria of having used cannabis once in the past six months (N=753, 60.3% female). Participants responded to surveys measuring the following: general demographics, cannabis use/problems (via the 8-item Cannabis Use Disorders Identification Test revised), perceived prevalence of cannabis use among peers, injunctive norms of themselves and others (i.e., degree of cannabis use approval), and personal beliefs regarding sociobehavioral criteria for problematic cannabis use. The data was analyzed using parametric and non-parametric testing models.
Results of the study found that participants with problematic cannabis use patterns tend to assess the use of their peers (in this case, lower usage) more accurately than that of non-problematic users (p<0.001). Interestingly, with regard to approval norms, non-problematic users demonstrated a degree of pluralistic ignorance (private disdain, feigned public support) for cannabis use among their student peers, while problematic users demonstrated comparable levels of personal use approval and peer use approval. Lastly, problematic users were less likely than non-problematic users to emphasize the importance of using sociobehavioral criteria like family history, number of times stoned per week, etc. in defining a cannabis use problem.
Takeaway: cannabis use norms vary between problematic users and non-problematic users, and it may entail how an individual defines the degree to which cannabis use is considered problematic. Cannabis use norms will most likely continue to evolve as accessibility to the substance trends in an increasing manner, so additional research characterizing these norms will always seem to be in demand.
Loverock A, Yakovenko I, Wild TC. Cannabis norm perceptions among Canadian university students. Addictive Behaviors. 2021;112:106567. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2020.106567