Increasing cannabis use is associated with increased social discount rates and decreased self-reported social use in college students.

Abstract

Cannabis use has increased in parallel with college-aged individuals as recreational cannabis legalization increases. Temporal discounting studies with licit and illicit substances have shown that substance use frequency is positively associated with steeper discount rates. However, temporal discounting studies targeting cannabis use have shown either a small or no positive association between substance use frequency and discount rates. A previous social discounting study reported that current cannabis use participants showed significantly steeper discount rates relative to participants who self-reported no cannabis use. The present study extends those findings by focusing on current cannabis use participants to determine whether cannabis use frequency is correlated with decreased cannabis sharing. In addition, given the purported social nature of cannabis use, the present study examined associations between cannabis use frequency and self-report social use patterns. Eighty-nine college students self-reported current cannabis use rates via a cannabis engagement questionnaire and completed a social discounting task for cannabis. Results showed that cannabis use participants above the median (>4 cannabis use days in the past 30 days) shared significantly less hypothetical cannabis, relative to participants below the median (≤4 use days in the past 30 days). In addition, participants above the median were significantly less likely to self-report using cannabis "always or almost always with other people." These results extend previous findings that social discount rates are significantly associated with increased cannabis use within a social context. Implications for quantitative models assessing cannabis value and potential clinical diagnosis are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).