Is Pre-College Interpersonal Trauma Associated with Cannabis Use?

Objective: To examine the prevalence and correlates of lifetime cannabis use (i.e., experimental [use 1-5 times] and non-experimental [use ≥ 6 times]) in relation to demographics, interpersonal trauma (IPT), and alcohol and nicotine use.Participants: A large (n = 9,889) representative sample of college students at an urban college campus in the southeastern part of the United States.Methods: Participants were 4 cohorts of first-year college students who completed measures of demographic variables, cannabis, alcohol, nicotine, and IPT. Associations were estimated using multinomial logistic regressions.Results: The prevalence of lifetime cannabis use was 45.5%. Specifically, 28.1% reported non-experimental cannabis use and 17.4% reported experimental cannabis use. Race, cohort, nicotine, and IPT were associated with experimental and non-experimental cannabis use. Additionally, alcohol and sex were associated with non-experimental cannabis use.Conclusions: Results show that cannabis use is prevalent among college students and is associated with race, IPT, and other substance use.