Project Name: Project SAM
Principal Investigator: Christine M. Lee, PhD
Grant Title: Intensive Daily Measurement of Simultaneous Alcohol and Marijuana Use in a High-Risk Community Sample of Young Adults: Impacts on Acute and Longer Term Use and Consequences
Sponsor: National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism
Project Period: 8/1/2016 to 7/31/2021
Grant Number: RO1AA025037
Project Coordinator: Devon Alisa Abdallah, PhD
Project SAM – In November 2012, WA State voters approved Initiative 502 that legalized non-medical/recreational use of marijuana for adults age 21 and older; with retail outlets opening across the state in 2014. Currently, non-medical/recreational marijuana use is legal in 10 states across the nation, as well as the District of Columbia and nationally in Canada. One major public health and policy question that remains is whether using marijuana leads to increases or reductions in alcohol use. Project SAM uses assesses young adults across three years, including with intensive daily bursts of assessments across two years to examine whether days in which they use alcohol and marijuana simultaneously are associated with more (or less) alcohol use and alcohol-related problems (e.g., driving while intoxicated, hangovers, passing/blacking out). Results from this study will be instrumental for understanding whether marijuana use may have substitution (alcohol use decreases) or complementary (both marijuana and alcohol increase) effects on alcohol, as well as daily contexts in which simultaneous use is more likely and consequential which will directly inform intervention strategies.