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Updated: Oct 3, 2025

Brain Morphology of Cannabis Users With or Without Psychosis: A Pilot MRI Study
Published on: August 18, 2020
Reflective and non-reflective influences on cannabis use among undergraduate students: A qualitative study
Samuele Porche1, Benjamin Gardner1
1Department of Psychology, King's College London Institute of Psychiatry Psychology and Neuroscience, London, UK.
Objective:
Around 40% of US university students use cannabis, 25% of whom present with cannabis use disorder, which endangers health. We investigated the concurrent contribution of reflective processes, which generate action via conscious deliberation, and non-reflective processes, which prompt behavior automatically, to undergraduates' cannabis consumption.
Participants:
Eighteen UK undergraduates who regularly consume cannabis (11 female, 7 male; mean age 20 y).
Methods:
Semi-structured interviews explored cannabis motives, routines, cues, and decision points. Thematic analysis identified themes, in each of which reflective and non-reflective dimensions were coded.
Results:
Four themes were identified: cannabis use for relaxation, social bonding, and symbolic-affective significance, and contexts and triggers. Some influences guided cannabis use reflectively in some settings, and non-reflectively in others. Even when cannabis use was consciously driven, non-reflective processes were deployed to execute subservient acts, such as rolling joints.
Conclusions:
Findings highlight specific processes and pathways that might be targeted to reduce cannabis-related harm.
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