With reports of severe lung illnesses related to vaping making headlines in 2019, cannabis use skyrocketed among high school students were soaring.
Cannabis vaping involves inhaling evaporated oils, or vapours from heated concentrates known as dabs. Joseph J Palamar, PhD, of New York University reported on his study in the Journal of Adolescent Health.
The long-running Monitoring the Future study results showed that 4.9% (95% CI 4.3%-5.5%) of high school students reported “frequent” vaping of cannabis products — 10 times or more in the previous month — up from 2.1% in 2018 (95% CI 1.7%-2.6%). Rates of any cannabis vaping in the previous month also rose significantly, from 7.5% in 2018 (95% CI 6.7%-8.4%) to 14.0% in 2019 (95% CI 13.1%-14.9%).
These increases accompanied an unsettling outbreak of respiratory illnesses, until it was eclipsed by the COVID pandemic. Nearly 3000 Americans, mostly young adults, fell ill with EVALI — e-cigarette or vaping-associated lung injury — and 68 died, noted Dr Palamar. Epidemiological and lab research eventually identified vitamin E acetate as the likely cause. The substance is a common component of illicit cannabis vaping products, even though a substantial minority of victims denied use of such products.
Dr Palamar’s study drew on Monitoring the Future data on 4072 students in 10th and 12th grades in 2018 and 8314 in 2019. The study also highlighted other trends.
Cannabis vaping in the past month nearly tripled among female students from 2018 to 2019, while rates for students in general age 18 and older rose 2.5-fold. Social activity, as indicated by reports of “going out” four to seven times a week, was linked to increased rates of cannabis vaping. There were also small increases in cannabis vaping among students reporting other psychoactive drug use including opioids, cocaine, “tranquilisers”, and non-LSD hallucinogens.
The study did not address the extent to which school closures and social restrictions resulting from the COVID pandemic affected these trends, and it will be some before data from Monitoring the Future can answer this as the survey was stopped in March 2020 when the pandemic closed schools.
Nevertheless, the available 2020 data showed that the number of 10th graders saying cannabis was “fairly easy” or “very easy” to obtain had dropped sharply, accelerating a trend underway for more than 20 years. This was despite the spread of legal marijuana.
Dr Palamar noted several limitations to his study and to Monitoring the Future in general. Data on drug use was self-reported, and the survey took place at schools, meaning that students “chronically absent or who dropped out are underrepresented,” he wrote. There were also some subgroups such as those vaping cannabis daily, that were too small for analysis.
Source: MedPage Today
Journal information: Palamar J “Increases in frequent vaping of cannabis among high school seniors in the United States, 2018-2019” J Adolesc Health 2021; DOI: 10.1016/j.jadohealth.2021.03.034.
