Table 3.

Impact of the pandemic on substance use.

Continued substance use during COVID-19	Decreased substance use during COVID-19
“I just went to the same guy who lived right down the road from me. There wasn’t nothing else to do [during COVID-19]. We just smoked weed and played Call of Duty, which, at the time, just seemed normal for people our age.”	“I was less likely to go and mingle and hang out with a bunch of people I knew may be sick.”
“I could’ve called and been like ‘Hey, you good?’ and if he was like, ‘Yeah, I’m good but I have COVID’ that wouldn’t have stopped me for a second.”	“I’d find somewhere else to go get it because I knew that person had COVID.”
“I never honestly took it [COVID-19] super serious.”	“It was more difficult but not impossible to find substances.”
“My thought automatically went to, ‘Are they gonna close the liquor stores? Am I gonna not be able to go to bars anymore?’”
“No, it didn’t affect me at all. I was living with a cocaine dealer.”
“It [COVID-19] definitely increased my use exponentially.”
“Yeah, it [COVID-19] made me want to get high more because I was really scared about what’s happening, what’s going on. Getting high was the only thing that I had control over.”
“Once the pandemic hit and we were shut in, my drinking took off because liquor stores were open.”
“I could sneak around a lot more and get away with my use” [while his wife was sick with COVID-19 and quarantining]