The team at CBD.fr has translated the New Frontier Data article into French for your convenience… you can find the original source of this article, written by New Frontier Data, here.Last week’s Cannabit explored the overall shifts in cannabis consumption and product form during the pandemic (using data from a September survey of 4,600 US consumers). This week’s edition examines the survey results to measure the pandemic’s impact on consumers’ social consumption practices and mental health. These findings and their implications for the industry are explored in greater depth in New Frontier Data’s upcoming article,
The Impact of COVID-19: A Supplement to the 2020-2021 US Cannabis Report , due for publication in December. Pandemic precautions require changes in social behavior. Nearly all (98%) current cannabis users (i.e., those who consume it at least once a year) reported changing their daily social behaviors to incorporate precautions against contracting and spreading the virus. 84% practiced social distancing, 55% self-isolated at home, and 42% interacted only with their COVID pods—a small circle of family members or friends. Meanwhile, 72% also reported changing how they consume cannabis with others.
The most common change in social cannabis use is for each person to consume their own product to avoid sharing (26%) with physical contact. A smaller group (16%) continues to share cannabis for smoking but tends to use co-holders or personal mouthpieces to avoid directly sharing saliva with other users. About 1 in 10 has moved their consumption sessions to a video call platform, thus avoiding a shared physical space.
Among the more extreme adjustments, more than one in five users (22%) report no longer consuming cannabis with others, and one in 10 (11%) no longer uses it at all. Among users who only consumed cannabis socially before the pandemic, a third (33%) had not used it for more than six months since the start of the pandemic. This reflects the fact that some social users rely on friends to supply the cannabis they consume, while they rarely or never purchase it themselves.
The Impact of the Pandemic on Consumer Mental Health Varies
The pandemic and its related effects on social and family life (as well as the resulting economic disruptions and financial strain) have unsurprisingly taken their toll on most consumers. Two in five reported that their mental health worsened during the pandemic, two in five reported that it remained the same, and one in five reported that it improved.
The Impact of the Pandemic on Consumer Mental Health: Data
The groups most likely to report a decline in mental health during the pandemic (i.e., women and consumers aged 18 to 34) were also those most likely, prior to the pandemic, to have used cannabis primarily or exclusively for social purposes (as opposed to solitary use). This does not mean that the lack of post-pandemic social consumption precipitated a deterioration in the mental health of these users, but rather that higher rates of cannabis use with others before the pandemic indicated a stronger general tendency toward extroversion and social behavior, which the pandemic disrupted, likely increasing feelings of isolation and worsening emotional well-being. Cannabis use for managing mental health during the pandemic
Among the most common reasons consumers cited for using cannabis were promoting relaxation, reducing anxiety, and aiding sleep; for many, the pandemic subsequently increased these needs. More than half (52%) of consumers reported using cannabis specifically to improve their mental health during the pandemic. These rates were higher (58%) among consumers under the age of 55 and 63% among those with children under 18 living at home.
The impact of the pandemic on consumers’ mental health, charts
The Impact of COVID-19: A Supplement to the 2020-2021 US Cannabis Report
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