HealthDay Reporter
FRIDAY, Could 20, 2022 (HealthDay Information) — A rising variety of U.S. youngsters are vaping marijuana — a behavior that in some methods could also be extra dangerous than old style pot smoking, a brand new examine finds.
Researchers discovered that between 2017 and 2019, the proportion of teenagers who reported any marijuana use prior to now month ticked upward barely — from 13.9% to fifteen.4%.
What actually modified, the examine discovered, was how children have been utilizing the drug. There was a pointy enhance in vaping, whereas conventional marijuana smoking declined.
The proportion of children who stated they vaped marijuana “regularly” — at the very least as soon as every week — greater than doubled, from 2.1% to five.4%. Occasional use (one to 6 instances a month) rose to an analogous diploma.
On the identical time, the proportion of children who smoke marijuana declined. In essence, vaping gave the impression to be changing smoking, in line with lead researcher Katherine Keyes, a professor at Columbia College Mailman Faculty of Public Well being in New York Metropolis.
She stated she might solely speculate in regards to the causes. However the rising reputation of vaping nicotine, together with legalization and altering social norms round marijuana, are doubtless elements, Keyes stated.
These factors have been echoed by Linda Richter, vp of prevention analysis and evaluation for the nonprofit Partnership to Finish Dependancy.
She stated previous analysis provides some “compelling explanations” for the developments seen on this examine.
“First, the wave of nicotine vaping that unfold all through center and excessive colleges over the previous a number of years elevated the chance that youngsters who vape nicotine will transition to vaping marijuana,” stated Richter, who was not concerned within the examine.
Vaping, she added, has turn out to be “normalized,” whereas on the identical time “pro-marijuana messages” have grown.
“Vaped merchandise are additionally sometimes seen as safer and more healthy than smoked merchandise, as a result of when e-cigarettes have been initially launched to the market, they have been marketed as safer options to cigarette smoking,” Richter stated.
However vaping is way from benign. And in relation to marijuana, Keyes stated, vaping can really ship a better dose of THC than smoking does. THC is the energetic ingredient behind marijuana’s “excessive.”
That larger THC dose, Richter stated, can “hook younger folks to the substance and maintain them coming again for extra.”
And whereas vaping doesn’t contain smoke, the liquids utilized in vaporizers do include doubtlessly poisonous chemical substances, Richter identified. Vitamin E acetate, an additive in some THC-containing vaping merchandise, has been linked to extreme — and typically deadly — lung accidents.
That lack of smoke can be an issue of types: Youngsters can conceal marijuana vaping extra simply than smoking, Richter stated, as a result of there is no telltale pot odor.
The brand new findings — printed Could 19 within the journal Dependancy — are primarily based on greater than 51,000 U.S. teenagers who took half in annual well being survey between 2017 and 2019.
Throughout that point, marijuana vaping rose amongst girls and boys, with a big spike in these utilizing at the very least as soon as every week: from 2.9% to six.2% amongst boys, and from 1.3% to 4.7% amongst women.
By 2019, marijuana vaping was extra fashionable than conventional pot smoking amongst all racial and ethnic teams, aside from Black teenagers.
Keyes additionally pointed to a discovering from a earlier examine of the identical group of teenagers: Highschool seniors reported an particularly sharp rise in marijuana vaping — with the prevalence almost tripling, from 5% to 14%.
The vaping craze presents mother and father with some troublesome points, in line with Keyes and Richter. Not solely is marijuana use tougher to note, however children are additionally seeing marijuana vaping merchandise marketed in every single place, together with on social media, they identified.
“It isn’t a matter of whether or not your little one might be uncovered to this, however when,” Keyes stated. “The most effective factor mother and father can do is to speak to their children about marijuana use, and begin early — in center faculty.”
Richter agreed, encouraging mother and father to take a “well being quite than a punitive strategy” to these conversations.
Extra info
Partnership to Finish Dependancy has recommendation for folks on speaking about marijuana.
SOURCES: Katherine Keyes, PhD, professor, epidemiology, Columbia College Mailman Faculty of Public Well being, New York Metropolis; Linda Richter, PhD, vp, prevention analysis and evaluation, Partnership to Finish Dependancy, New York Metropolis; Dependancy, Could 19, 2022, on-line
