CanCope: Digital Intervention for Coping With Cannabis Craving

The CanCope Study is designed to test the effectiveness of two distinct strategies (mindfulness and distraction) to cope with cannabis cravings in young adults (19 - 25 years) who are attempting to reduce their cannabis use. Cannabis use is determined using a single-item question about the number of days out of the past 30 days the individual used cannabis. Young adults who reported using cannabis >10 out of the past 30 days, who were not pregnant or breastfeeding, and who were not currently in treatment for problems related to substance use were eligible to enroll in this four-week study. The CanCope intervention was delivered to participants through the MetricWire app, which was available for download on the participants' personal smartphones. Participants were asked to complete five ecological momentary assessments (EMA) per day, which asked questions related to cannabis use including one question about current level of craving on a scale of 0 - 10. If a participant reported a craving level >4, a message was sent via the app encouraging the participant to try a mindfulness or distraction coping strategy, or the participant received a thank-you for completing the EMA which served as an attention control.