Alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana consumption is associated with increased odds of same-day substance co- and tri-use

Abstract

<div class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="S1"> <!-- named anchor --> </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d8119046e173">Background:</h5> <p id="P3">Little is known about event-level patterns of marijuana co- or tri-use with alcohol and tobacco. Thus, the study goal was to examine patterns of same-day alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana co- and tri-use at the individual level in non-treatment-seeking alcohol users. </p> </div><div class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="S2"> <!-- named anchor --> </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d8119046e178">Methods:</h5> <p id="P4">Participants (N = 551) completed an in-person interview for alcohol, cigarette, and marijuana use over the previous 30 days, and the event-level substance use patterns of n = 179 participants who reported using each of these substances at least once per month were analyzed. </p> </div><div class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="S3"> <!-- named anchor --> </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d8119046e183">Results:</h5> <p id="P5">The use of alcohol, marijuana, or cigarettes independently increased the probability of subsequent, simultaneous co-use of one of the two remaining substances. The co-use of alcohol with cigarettes and marijuana with cigarettes produced generally additive effects on the odds of same day tri-use of marijuana and alcohol, respectively. Conversely, the co-use of alcohol and marijuana produced sub-additive effects on likelihood of cigarette use. Sex moderated several of the observed patterns of co- and tri-use: the relationship between alcohol or cigarette use predicting marijuana co-use was stronger in men, whereas the observed additive relationships between drug co-use leading to tri-use was stronger in women. </p> </div><div class="section"> <a class="named-anchor" id="S4"> <!-- named anchor --> </a> <h5 class="section-title" id="d8119046e188">Conclusions:</h5> <p id="P6">The presented results may aid in the understanding of how simultaneous co-use of marijuana with alcohol and/or tobacco relates to the etiology, maintenance, and treatment of comorbid and trimorbid substance use disorder. Replication and extension of the results in treatment seeking populations using more fine-grained analysis approaches, e.g. ecological momentary assessment, is needed. </p> </div>