Young people who regularly smoke electronic cigarettes are more likely to end up using cannabis.
- In 2020, 37.4% of adults in France said they had already experienced electronic cigarettes.
- 4.3% of French people vape daily.
According to a new studyyoung people who vape can more easily fall into the consumption of cannabis, especially when they suffer from mental disorders.
Prevalence
The research, which was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, analyzed the health data of thousands of American teenagers aged 12 to 17 over four years, as well as their habits of e-cigarette consumption and/or of cannabis. None of the youngsters smoked weed at the start of the experiment.
After cross-checking all the elements, the researchers found that cannabis use was much more common among adolescents who used e-cigarettes than among those who did not vape. Among those who vaped, the prevalence of cannabis use was 13.8% in the second year of the study, 9.7% in the third year and… 26.3% in the fourth year! In contrast, among those who never used e-cigarettes, the prevalence of cannabis use was 2.2% in the second year of the experiment, 2.4% in the third year and 2 .9% in the fourth year.
Mental Health
The scientists also found that cannabis use was more common among participants who had serious mental health issues. “Psychiatric concerns are generally associated with higher levels of tobacco and cannabis use, so our hypothesis was that e-cigarette users with mental health issues were going to be more likely to start using cannabis compared to to others”, said study director Jidong Huang. “But what we found was that the entry into cannabis use depended on the type of mental problem the person had,” he specifies.
Thus, vapers with mental health issues”exteriorized”, such as violent impulses or risky behaviors, switched more easily to cannabis than vapers suffering from psychiatric ailments “internalized”such as anxiety or depression.
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