Young Adults' Cannabis Environments and their Cannabis Use and Misuse.

OBJECTIVE

Considering the interplay between normative and legal aspects of young adults' cannabis environments may help improve cannabis use and misuse prevention and harm reduction among young people.

METHOD: Data came from 3,818 U.S. young adults (average age 23 years, SD = .49) living in diverse legal cannabis contexts (54.8% illegal, 17.7% medical legal; 27.8% non-medical legal). Cannabis norms were measured by young adults' perceptions of cannabis use and approval by parents, peers, spouse/partner, and community members. Logistic regressions estimated the separate, additive, and interactive associations of cannabis norms and legal permissiveness with young adults' past-year cannabis use and misuse, adjusting for past cannabis use and norms and other covariates.

RESULTS

Legal and normative permissiveness were highly correlated. However, only norms were independently associated with past-year cannabis use (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] = 6.50, CI = [1.62, 5.05]), frequent past-month cannabis use (AOR = 5.58, CI = [3.94, 7.92]), and cannabis use disorder (AOR = 2.48, CI = [2.10, 2.94]) when examined together. The association between cannabis norms and use did not differ by legal permissiveness.

CONCLUSIONS

Changing cannabis norms in young adults' social environments beyond peers could be an impactful prevention and intervention strategy.