An Analysis of the Co-Use of Cannabis and Alcohol Amongst Spanish-Speaking Communities in Legalized vs. Non-legalized States

Squire, Ariana

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

An Analysis of the Co-Use of Cannabis and Alcohol Amongst Spanish-Speaking Communities in Legalized vs. Non-legalized States Public Deposited

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Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/br86b460h

Abstract

While there are data on the effects of co-use of various drugs and alcohol, many studies do not have a wide demographic of participants such that results tend to be skewed towards majority groups. In order to have a better understanding of which populations are using the most cannabis, it is necessary to broaden research to non-majority groups to have a more accurate representation of the population. The present study used a survey on Prolific, conducted completely in Spanish, to ask members of the Latinx community about their drug and alcohol use. There were 203 total participants in the study, all 21 years or older, identifying as Latinx, and endorsing Spanish as a primary or fluent secondary language. Results suggest that, between the alcohol only group and the co-use group, there was a significant difference in age such that participants in the co-use group are older than participants in the alcohol only group (t = -2.35, p = 0.02). There were no differences between groups in regard to gender or level of education. Results also suggested that, within the co-use group, participants who started using cannabis at an older age use more cannabis than participants who started using cannabis earlier in life (F(203) = 50.4, p < .05). Furthermore, there was a significant relationship between legalization status and cannabis use frequency score such that co-use participants living in a state where cannabis is legal use cannabis more frequently than participants who live in a state where cannabis is illegal (F(104)=4.595, p=0.03). However, there were no significant results within the co-use group in regard to gender or level of education (p < .05 for all hypotheses). If creating an intervention for co-use, the intervention should be targeted towards Latinx co-users who started using cannabis at an older age and are living in a state where marijuana is legal.

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