People are less likely to consume cannabis if they have an upcoming activity such as a job interview or caring for children. The corresponding study was published in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior.
Demand for cannabis is affected by next-day work-related responsibilities like job interviews. How non-work related responsibilities and perceived contextual suitability of cannabis use affect demand, however, has remained somewhat unclear.
In the current study, researchers examined how various responsibilities affected cannabis demand among 177 adults who smoked cannabis at least once per month. The participants completed hypothetical cannabis purchase tasks that asked how much of the substance they would consume at increasing prices in different situations: no responsibilities and next-day responsibilities, including work, leisure, and caregiving.
The findings showed that people are less likely to consume cannabis if they have an upcoming responsibility. Use likelihood reduced the most for job interviews and caring for children. However, those who rated cannabis as being more suitable for each situation were also more likely to consider using the substance.
The researchers found that people who wouldn't alter their use of cannabis included those who believed that the drug would not interfere with their responsibilities, as well as those who deemed use to be socially acceptable. A significant number of participants also noted that cannabis affected them positively- helping them sleep better or reduce anxiety, for example- thus making them more likely to use the drug.
"One of the things that we know about addictive disorders is that people often will continue to consume the substance despite it causing consequences for them. That could be an indicator of a potentially more problematic substance use pattern." said Michael Amlung, associate director for training at the Cofrin Logan Center at the University of Kansas, in a press release.
He continued to note that findings are inconsistent on whether cannabis improves sleep or reduces anxiety.
"These results suggest that demand is sensitive to next-day responsibilities. However, these effects are not uniform, and future research is needed to examine these individual differences and the timing of upcoming responsibilities," concluded the researchers in their paper.
Sources: Science Daily, Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior