New study warns of rapid growth in marijuana e-cigarette use among U.S. teens

The researchers pointed out that marijuana e-cigarettes are increasingly becoming the most popular form of exposure for all teenage groups in the United States, with an overall monthly frequency of 6 or more cigarettes. 

The frequency of occasional marijuana use is rising rapidly and is more than 40 times more likely than nicotine ingestion.

The most worrisome is the increase in high school students — tripling in two years, from 5 percent to 14 percent. Previous studies of related time and frequency trends have not received enough attention, but they are critical for public health surveillance and planning.

Dr. Katherine Keyes, professor of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman College, said:

High and frequent marijuana use among U.S. teens is on the rise, as is the consumption of e-cigarettes containing marijuana and nicotine products. Therefore, understanding the prevalence patterns of frequent marijuana use is one of the prevention information that public health agencies need to know urgently.

Given the growing concerns about the safety of marijuana use, especially the potential for subsequent health impairments associated with frequent consumption, these results point to the urgent need for necessary public health interventions and increased regulation.

It is reported that the survey results of the study “Frequency of adolescent cannabis smoking and vaping in the United States: Trends, disparities and concurrent substance use, 2017–19” are based on the representative “Monitoring the Future” annual report in the United States. survey project, and covered 51,052 school-aged teenagers.

● It can be seen that from 2017 to 2019, the proportion of adolescents who used marijuana in the past 30 days increased from 2.1% to 5.4%, and the proportion of occasional users also increased from 1.2% to 3.5%.

● On the other hand, not based on e-cigarettes, the proportion of teens who frequently smoked marijuana in the past 30 days increased from 3.8% to 2.1%, and occasional users increased from 6.9% to 4.4.%.

● In addition, the Hispanic/Latino or lower socioeconomic group of teens saw a particularly significant increase in the frequency of e-cigarettes containing marijuana—up from 2.2% to 6.7%.

Dr. Keyes added: Exposure to tobacco, e-cigarettes and alcohol abuse was strongly associated with frequent marijuana consumption, regardless of e-cigarette use.

Evidence suggests that young adults who ingest nicotine — particularly through e-cigarettes — are more likely to subsequently escalate to vaping that contains marijuana.

In fact, teens who smoked/nicotine were 42/10 times more likely to have smoked marijuana in the last 30 days than the control group with more than 10 reports of binge drinking.

Given that e-cigarettes are more occult than marijuana, this form of marijuana ingestion is more likely to lead to frequent exposure.

At the same time, prevalence increased across all age groups, with high school graduates bearing the greatest burden—the prevalence nearly tripled in the last 30 days, from 5% to 14%. In addition, the data for 2018-2019 increased from 7.5% to 14%.

Dr. Keyes noted that daily marijuana intake, which continues to be popular, has been higher in 2020 than in any year since 1981. Its adverse cognitive and social consequences, or have adverse health and long-term consequences—especially long-term drug use trajectories.

Equally worrying is that high doses of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) can easily be added to e-liquids, which could have serious and dangerous consequences for less tolerant teens.

Also worth noting, there is evidence that the increase in e-cigarette intake that we are seeing, compared to smoking, is concentrated among non-Hispanic whites and higher socioeconomic teens.

As U.S. states continue their reckless push to legalize marijuana, it will also become more difficult to regulate the shipping and marketing of its products. And until the policy is reversed, we can only hope for long-term intervention and increased investment in evidence-based prevention.