(PS1-33) How Do Young Adults Who Regularly Use Cannabis Spend Their Time on Non-use Days? A Daily Study

Background: A more fine-grained perspective on cannabis behavior can be obtained via ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methods by considering how activities on non-use days can inform interventions encouraging engagement in reinforcing alternatives to substance use. However, prior research utilizing EMA methods has focused nearly exclusively on characterizing cannabis use days. The present study characterized non-use days including reasons for not using on a given day and how and with whom they spent time on non-use days.

Method: Participants (N=68) from a larger study who reported cannabis on 15+ days in the past month and were considering reducing use completed daily surveys four times a day for seven days (84.7% morning survey completion where present data was collected). Participants were young adults ages 19-29 (M=23.4 years, SD=3.0; 63.2% white, 54.4% female, 50% non-students). Nearly 93% of participants were above the threshold for possible cannabis use disorder at baseline.

Results: On average, participants reported 4.00 cannabis use days (SD=2.3) and 1.57 non-use days (SD=1.95) across the 7-day survey period. The most common reasons for not using were “No desire” (59.8%), “I had other activities I wanted to do instead” (37.4%), and “I had no opportunity to use” (29.0%). Non-use days were spent mostly with other people (58.1% of non-use days) such as a romantic partner/date (42%), family (40%), and friends/roommates (36%). The most common activities reported on non-use days were entertainment at home (46.5%), domestic chores (39.5%), work (38.4%), and relaxation (27.9%). Participants reported low to moderate enjoyment of these activities.

Conclusions: Young adults with near-daily cannabis use tend to engage in mundane tasks with low to moderate enjoyment on non-use days. The most frequently endorsed reasons for not using are consistent with prior literature on reasons for not drinking (Lau-Barraco & Linden-Carmichael, 2019) and reflected internal motivation, whereas external factors or constraints were less frequently endorsed. The findings support the need for motivational enhancement interventions and intervention strategies may also consider encouraging more substance-free social activities with higher enjoyment.