Teen marijuana vaping doubles; alcohol, cigarette use declining
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Vaping marijuana is becoming more prevalent among American teenagers, according to findings from the 2019 Monitoring the Future survey.
Nora Volkow, MD, director of National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), said in a teleconference that the increase in marijuana vaping is concerning because “we’re seeing how the vaping of marijuana is associated with acute lung injury and death.”
Another concern, she explained, stems from “increasing evidence that consumption of high-content THC, particularly regularly, is associated with a significant risk for psychosis.”
The survey, conducted by the NIDA, is a nationally representative sample of eighth, 10th and 12th grade students from both public and private schools in the United States.
In 2019, the prevalence of past-year marijuana vaping was 20.8% among 12th graders, 19.4% among 10th graders, and 7% among eighth graders.
The prevalence of teenagers who reported past-month marijuana vaping almost doubled from 7.5% in 2018 to 14% in 2019, making it the second only to nicotine vaping for the highest 1-year increase in the history of the survey.
Despite the increase in marijuana vaping, the prevalence of marijuana use did not change — similar percentages of teens reported using marijuana in the past year and month in 2018 and 2019.
Addition survey results showed:
- past-year misuse of Vicodin dropped to 1.1% among 10th and 12th graders;
- a significant decline in regular cigarette use among 12th graders in the past month, from 7.6% in 2018 to 5.7% in 2019;
- 11.7% of 12th graders reported vaping nicotine daily;
- 8.1% of 12th graders reported vaping because they felt “hooked” — more than double from 3.6% in 2018; and
- past-year alcohol use fell to 37.7% among 10th graders and 52.1% among 12th graders, a significant decline in the last five years.
“There’s good news, and there’s bad news,” Richard Miech, PhD, principal investigator for the Monitoring the Future project and research professor at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, explained during the teleconference. “The good news is that smoking and alcohol are down — the bad news is that vaping is up. The consequences of this are not known, and it’s going to require renewed effort from us to reduce teen vaping in the future,” he continued. – by Erin Michael
Reference:
NIDA. Monitoring the Future Study: Trends in Prevalence of Various Drugs. https://www.drugabuse.gov/trends-statistics/monitoring-future/monitoring-future-study-trends-in-prevalence-various-drugs. Accessed on Dec. 18, 2019.
Disclosures: Volkow and the authors report no relevant financial disclosures.