This study examined aspects of cannabis consumption in non-clinical adults during the early phase of the COVID-19-pandemic. Main findings were that consumption quantities remained unchanged after the onset of the pandemic, and were not associated with corona-related concerns or psychopathology. Cannabis consumption amounts were, however, associated with subjectively positive effects of the substance, a milder experience of the negative effects of the pandemic, being placed in quarantine, more frequent pre-pandemic us, and higher age. Boredom was the only motive for its use that was maintained under pandemic conditions.

Although the hypothesis of an increased cannabis use during 1 month of the early SARS CoV-19 pandemic could not be confirmed, it was demonstrated that those individuals consuming greater quantities prior to COVID-19 outbreak were more likely to continue their consumption rate. Expectations of economical exigency were reported by nearly two thirds of the participants, and on the more individual level, of financing shortages of the substance were anticipated by circa one third of cannabis users. The number of users negating supply issues decreased by 15% during 1 month of the pandemic. However, the vast majority of the study participants stated unchanged quality and pricing of cannabis. Therefore, it seems rather unlikely that the absence of the foreseen rise of cannabis consumption during the early pandemic can be solely explained by alterations of its availability. The pandemic might have moreover encouraged particularly non-addicted cannabis consumers to adapt a more health-promoting life style. Our results are in line with another web-based survey completed by 3,632 unselected Belgian residents that yielded no significant changes in the consumption of cannabis when comparing pre-pandemic and pandemic quantities (21). Boehnke et al. found that more than a third of participants had increased, but another 25% had decreased cannabis use in the course of the pandemic (10). In contrast, 1,202 participants of an internet-based questionnaire of whom 76.7% claimed to use cannabis for mental health conditions, reported increased medicinal cannabis use by 91% since the COVID-19 pandemic (22). In the European study of the EMCDDA, 20% of participants reported a decrease and 40% an increase of usage of cannabis (6). Compared to users of other drugs, cannabis consumers were prone to replace their drug of choice by alcoholic beverages (6). It cannot be assumed that the respondents of our survey, originating from more than 50 countries, were exposed to identical pandemic-related confinement measures, and local accessibility of cannabis may have differed substantially. To summarize, our results regarding consumption quantities of cannabis in the early phase of COVID-19 pandemic are comparable to those of other large transnational study projects. The aforementioned, partly conflicting results either surveyed more defined sample groups (adolescent, residents of a certain country/region) and/or dealt with considerably smaller sample sizes.

In this study, more frequent cannabis use before and during the pandemic was associated with a stronger perception of positive effects of cannabis during the pandemic and marginally less awareness of negative effects of the pandemic. However, verbalization of greater corona-related concern was associated with more positively rated effects of cannabis during the pandemic, but not with quantitative features of use. Individuals who gathered experience in using cannabis as a means of regulating negative emotions or to facilitate coping with emotionally demanding situations, might have appreciated its relieving effect with increasing corona-related concerns. Interestingly, a sample of cannabis users in the US, who started their consumption during the pandemic, showed higher COVID-19-related worries than non-users and pre-pandemic users (23). Since our sample only contained 3% of first time cannabis consumers during the pandemic, one cannot draw conclusions concerning COVID-19-related worries in this subgroup. In partial accordance with our results, the authors described a reduction of social motives explaining variance in change of cannabis use, whereby, and similarly to the results of Benschop et al. from 2015, coping motives did not reveal a significant association with changes in cannabis use or symptom severity (24). Although thirty percent of the Dutch cannabis users of Cousijn’s survey experienced job losses and increased loneliness, contact with partners and families improved and their general mental health states remained unaltered (25). Since legal cannabis outlets were opened in Netherlands during lockdown, a great impact on the procurement of the substance cannot be assumed. On the other hand, addicted consumers might tend to downplay corona-associated as well as cannabis-related risks. The present study, however, yielded small respective correlation coefficients, and corona-related concerns were not associated with quantitative changes in cannabis use, indicating that cannabis use as a means for emotion regulation may be a neglectable phenomenon during the early pandemic.

Our survey results reveal that the consumption quantities were not associated with the self-reported psychological symptom load, which also argues against an increased use of THC for coping purposes. This seems counterintuitive, as a deterioration in depression and anxiety symptoms during lockdown was reported for circa one half of a Spanish SUD sample (26). Since our inclusion criteria and clinical self-report did not demand any clinical diagnoses, only a smaller share of participants might have exhibited full blown cannabis addiction or other mental disorders using cannabis for self-regulation or self-medication. Furthermore, this study did not explore non-medical forms of coping that could serve to attenuate symptoms and perceived distress. A reduced capability to perceive or identify symptoms or a bereft of critical thinking of those consumers fulfilling the addiction criteria must also be considered to elucidate our finding.

The present data allowed the identification of predictors of the cannabis intake quantity reported in the early pandemic. Quarantinization, older age, the stronger experience of corona-related positive effects of cannabis and a lower subjectively experienced severity of the restrictions of daily life were contributing to the prediction of higher cannabis consumption levels. Moreover, pre-pandemic usage quantities predicted cannabis consumption during 1 month of the pandemic, but the predictive value of quarantinization was preserved when this confounder was controlled for in the regression analysis. Results could be interpreted in the sense that older, more experienced or dependent users of cannabis consume the substance under pandemic conditions because of its known positive effects and even increase their consumption, when social contacts and activities are restricted, probably corresponding to their habitual problem-solving behavior. Younger, occasional users might not increase their use, when socially motivated consumption, e.g., at parties or festivals, is no longer an option. Of note, the appreciation of cannabis effects as helpful may rather drive consumption, while pandemic-related concerns did not seem to change use patterns and may also motivate health-conscious behavior. Quarantined individuals were more likely to report positive effects of cannabis (relaxation, intensification of taste, knowledge of one’s life and the world, sexual pleasure). In keeping with our result, Bartel et al. stated that Canadian participants in self-isolation used 20% more cannabis during the pandemic than those not being self-isolated (27). Self-isolation appeared to be an independent risk factor for higher cannabis use levels during the pandemic; irrespective of its usage in order to cope with depression during the pandemic (27). Interestingly, findings from a potentially overlapping subsample of our survey indicate a contrary effect of quarantinization on alcohol consumption that might be explained by the dominance of socially motivated use of this substance in non-clinical adults (28).

It can further be speculated that higher pre-pandemic cannabis use might even be associated with a higher risk of quarantinization, possibly due to shared risk factors such as impulsivity (29). Whereas during strict confinement in Spain decreases in cannabis use due to enhancement and social motives were evident (30), Salles et al. identified additional risk factors for cannabis use during the lockdown, such as age, concern for physical health, tobacco and alcohol consumption during lockdown, the pre-lockdown anger level and feelings of boredom during the restrictions (31).

In addition, our study explored changes in users’ motivations to consume cannabis before and during the weeks of the early pandemic. After the onset of the pandemic, social motives and intensification of pleasant feelings seemed to have become less salient than attenuation of negative emotions such as boredom. The most frequently reported rationales behind cannabis consumption during 1 month of pandemic were (1) relaxation, (2) pleasure, (3) numbing of tension/inner emptiness, (4) boredom, (5) numbing of anger/sadness, and (6) self-experience. McNemar testing proved that boredom as a motive of cannabis consumption was the only stable reason of consumption, and all other reasons were mentioned less frequently when comparing the pandemic and pre-pandemic statuses. Boredom has been discussed as a major motivation for cannabis use in psychotic patients as well as emerging adults (32, 33) and was a stable motive for cannabis use prior as well as during the pandemic in this sample. Results from studies investigating the use of other substances and respective consumption behaviors also highlight the role of boredom as a persistent motive (34–36). Vanderbruggen found the following most commonly stated motives for an increased cannabis consumption during COVID-19 lockdown measures: boredom, lack of social contacts, loss of daily structure, reward after a hard-working day, loneliness and conviviality (21). All other motives of cannabis use were chosen significantly less frequently during the pandemic. Motives relating to one’s expansion of consciousness, hedonism, creation of a collective experience were of lesser importance in the early pandemic. In accordance with previous findings concerning the relevance of cannabis intake for emotion regulation and coping (37, 38) the pre-pandemic motives of numbing of tension, anger and emptiness were reported frequently in our sample, but likewise significantly decreased during the early pandemic. It could be speculated that the contact restrictions and work place adjustments limit recreational use, but also the confrontation with interpersonal conflicts and therefore users are able to abstain from the euphoric or calming effects of cannabis. However, individual coping strategies (i.e., object resources, physical objects, personal resources, frustration tolerance) and their respective relevance in terms of substance use and distress relief were not specifically assessed in our study. Moreover, the degree of suffering during quarantine was not evaluated; thus it remains unclear whether individual coping mechanisms had to be implemented at all.

In summary, results of this survey disclose increases of cannabis use in association with corona-related restrictions and boredom and based on individual usage experiences, but do not substantiate motivations for use related to emotion regulation and coping with concerns, anxiety and psychopathology. However, a possible habitual reflection deficit might be more relevant in those cannabis consumers with high daily usage quantities, who might focus the positive effects of the substance, but tend to underestimate a possibly dysfunctional use of the substance for problem-solving.