It’s not clear why, but youths in U.S. states where medical marijuana is legal report more vaping of cannabis than their peers in states where weed is legal for all adults or it is completely illegal.
New research found that about 27% of 12th graders in medical marijuana states reported vaping cannabis compared to 19% in states that bar the drug or allow it for adult use.
“More than a quarter of our youth in medical states were vaping cannabis. That’s a lot,” said first author Christian Maynard, a doctoral student in sociology at Washington State University.
“We were expecting medical and adult use states would be more similar. Instead, we didn’t find any statistical difference between prohibited and adult use states,” he said in a university news release.
For the study, Maynard and his university adviser, sociologist Jennifer Schwartz, analyzed responses from 3,770 high school seniors in the 2020 Monitoring the Future survey. It has surveyed U.S. youth since 1975.
They also analyzed a subset of 556 participants who had answered questions about access to cannabis vaping products and perceived risks. In all, 62% of high school seniors in states where just medical marijuana was legal reported very easy access to cannabis vaping cartridges. Just 31% saw regular cannabis use as a great risk.
About 52% of high school seniors said they had easy access to cartridges in states where marijuana was prohibited and where it was allowed for adult recreational use.
More teens also considered regular cannabis use risky — about 40% in prohibited states and 36% in adult-use states.
Cara Murez – MSN.com – 2023-02-14.
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