Alcohol and cannabis use and co-use among Whites and Hispanics on and off the U.S./Mexico border in California

Abstract

This paper examines self-reported rates of drinking and cannabis use and co-use among White and Hispanic adults randomly selected in four counties in California: Imperial on the border; and Kern, Tulare, and Madera in California’s Central Valley. Co-use was significantly higher among the U.S. born than among those born abroad, and in the Central Valley than on the border. Co-users were heavier drinkers, had higher rates of alcohol use disorder, other alcohol problems, and a positive history of illicit drug use than drinkers only.

Keywords:

• Hispanics
• whites
• cannabis
• alcohol
• co-use

Ethical statement

All procedures were in accordance with the ethical standards of the responsible committee on human experimentation (institutional and national) and with the Helsinki Declaration of 1975, as revised in 2000. Informed consent was obtained from all participants included in the study. This study was approved by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation Institutional Review Board.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Data availability statement

The data analyzed in this study are available on request from the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

Research for and preparation of this manuscript was supported by the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse Research Center grant P60-AA06282 to the third author (Paul Grunewald).