Teen E-Cigarette Use Linked to Marijuana Use: Study

According to a study published on JAMA Network, teenagers who use e-cigarettes are more likely to try marijuana a year later compared to those who do not use e-cigarettes. However, the researchers warned that while there is a strong correlation at the individual level, the association between e-cigarette use and teenage marijuana use at the population level appears to be small. Previous studies have examined the association between teenage e-cigarette use and marijuana use, but given the increasing popularity of e-cigarettes, researchers hope to obtain more recent data.

They analyzed longitudinal data from the 4.5 (2017-2018) and 5 (2018-2019) waves of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study. They specifically compared teenagers who used e-cigarettes in the past 12 months or past 30 days to those who used marijuana in the same time frames. The study involved data from 9,828 adolescents.

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Today on the Haymarket Healthcare Network, it was reported that low-dose fluoxetine can reduce the use of diazepam during benzodiazepine detox, and is associated with improved psychological resilience and walking ability following hip fracture. Additionally, Pimavanserin has been linked to lower mortality rates among some Parkinson's disease patients. Adolescents who have used e-cigarettes at some point have a 13.93% higher risk of using marijuana one year later than those who have never used e-cigarettes. Individuals who have used e-cigarettes in the past year have a 14.89% higher risk. Those who have used e-cigarettes in the past 30 days have an 11.86% increased risk of using marijuana.

Researchers suggest that e-cigarette users are more likely to engage in risky behavior or may have friends who use marijuana. The fact that e-cigarettes can be used to consume marijuana may also be a contributing factor. However, the researchers report that population-level marijuana use has remained relatively stable from 1995 to 2020. The small sample size of the current study may be to blame: only 7.8% of surveyed non-marijuana using adolescents had ever used e-cigarettes. The researchers state that, according to the data, "the estimated change in population-level marijuana use due to e-cigarette use is less than 1 percentage point.

The study did not control for state-level legalization of marijuana among its limitations. Additionally, the use of self-reported data may have skewed the research results. Overall, the researchers concluded that "the use of e-cigarettes appears to have little correlation with overall prevalence of adolescent marijuana use" and that "adolescent marijuana use has remained relatively stable over the past quarter-century at the population level.

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