Grant: Cat. Gr.: Pop. Health Interv. Res. on Legalis. of Cannabis - Dev. Data Infrastru

University aged adults exhibit high levels of cannabis use (CU), and Canadians in this age group have particularly high rates of use of cannabis, alcohol and other drugs. Moreover, adults under the age of 25 have been proposed to be at an increased risk of negative CU consequences relative to other adults. High levels of substance use and susceptibility to negative consequences make this group particularly sensitive to regulatory changes and thus an important population in which to evaluate the impact of legalizing CU. We will recruit students aged 18-25 from the University of British Columbia's Okanagan campus to establish baselines and define a cohort to monitor and evaluate changes before and after legalization. We will use interviews, surveys and intervals of ecological momentary assessment to measure modes and levels of cannabis consumption, access to cannabis, and related mental health and social outcomes in the periods directly before and after cannabis legalization. We will use self-report and laboratory tasks to assess cognitive factors, such as attitudes and expectations, that are important determinants of substance use and are sensitive to changes in norms such as legalization. Using a behavioral economics framework, we will monitor changes in the use of other substances concurrent with legalization, and will assess the extent to which the changes reflect cannabis substitution and complementation. Groups within the university may be affected differentially by cannabis legalization; therefore we will examine the influences of ethnicity, gender, and empirically-derived personality subtypes across all aims.