cannabis vaping more than doubles among u.s. high school seniors
vaping up across the board, but the biggest hikes were in female students, those 18 years or older and participants who go out several times a week.
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more frequent cannabis vaping was detected in most sub-groups of high school seniors, but was particularly elevated in three. /
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the number of u.s. high school seniors who vape cannabis at least 10 times a month more than doubled from 2018 to 2019, notes a new study out of the u.s.
although the percentages of students involved were small, the increase was significant. frequent cannabis vaping use rose from 2.1 per cent to 4.9 per cent, state the findings, published last week in the journal of adolescent health.
“frequent vaping of cannabis now appears to be increasing at a faster rate than any vaping of cannabis,” study author joseph palamar, an associate professor at new york university (nyu) grossman school of medicine, says in a statement from the university.
investigators from the grossman school of medicine looked at data from monitoring the future study, a nationally representative survey of high school seniors in the u.s. in 2018 and 2019. in all, 12,561 students from 256 schools across 48 states were included in the data analyzed.
more frequent cannabis vaping was detected in most sub-groups of high school seniors, but was particularly elevated in three. published last week in the journal of adolescent health, the findings indicate the biggest hikes were among female students (up 183.5 per cent), students 18 or older (up 154.9 per cent) and those who go out four to seven times weekly (up 163 per cent).
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frequent cannabis vaping is an issue of concern since it “can increase the risk for cannabis use disorder,” researchers report. “symptoms of cannabis use disorder (cud) “can include increased tolerance, repeated attempts to control use or quit, spending a lot of time using, social interpersonal problems due to use, and giving up other activities to use, to name a few,” the statement adds.
additionally, the analysis shows that past-month cannabis vaping increased from 7.5 per cent to 14 per cent.
with regard to use of other drugs within the past year, investigators cite a number of notable increases. these include high school seniors who used psychedelics other than lsd (up 57.6 per cent) and those who used prescription opioids for non-medical use (up 184.7 per cent).
the monitoring the future study considered, among other things, cannabis vaping for grade 8, 10 and 12 students. past-month cannabis vaping for 8th graders climbed from 1.6 per cent in 2017 to 4.2 per cent in 2020, increased from 4.3 per cent to 11.3 per cent among 10th graders over that period, and shot up from 4.9 per cent to 12.2 per cent for 12th graders.
a canadian study published in 2015 suggested “vaporization of cannabis is likely less harmful than smoking,” but that “preliminary findings do support the idea that vaporization is an improvement over smoking.”
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researchers emphasized at the time that much more data was needed, including “randomized clinical trials investigating vaporization with long-term follow-up,” to come to more firm conclusions.
last year, the centre for addiction and mental health reported that among high school students, use of weed edibles increased from 11 per cent to 14 per cent between 2017 and 2019, and the rate of cannabis vaping doubled from five per cent to 10 per cent between 2015 and 2019.
and while not related specifically to vaping, authors of a study published earlier this year wrote “the legalization of non-medical cannabis use in some high-income countries may increase the prevalence of cud by making more potent cannabis products more readily available at a lower price.”
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