To our knowledge, no previous study has examined the role of cannabis use as a candidate criterion for cannabis use disorders, though pioneering research in this area has been conducted for alcohol consumption criteria (Li et al., 2007; Saha et al., 2007). In view of the important role played by cannabis use in DSM-IV definitions of cannabis abuse and dependence, and previous findings of the absence of criteria to represent the mild end of the cannabis use disorder continuum, a cannabis use quantity-frequency measure (i.e., consuming at least one joint per week in the year preceding the interview) was also examined to determine if it could serve as a potential candidate criterion to represent the milder end of the cannabis use disorder continuum. Identification of milder criteria is critical to etiologic research on cannabis use disorders through the development of dimensional measures that discriminate across the spectrum of severity. Accordingly, IRT models with and without the consumption criterion were compared with respect to model fit and information value. In addition, the relatively large sample size of the NESARC allowed for
