According to an analysis published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Wednesday, the number of teens vaping marijuana increased dramatically over the last two years. It has risen at a record-breaking pace.
In only one year — between 2018-2019 — the number of high school seniors reporting vaping marijuana within the last month increased from 7.5 to 14 percent.
The data used in the analysis came from the Monitoring the Future report, which is an annual report that tracks drug use by 42,000 students in 8th, 10th, and 12th grade at 392 schools throughout the United States.
Long-term lung disease linked to vaping
DEC. 17, 201904:51
This year’s report shows a doubling in marijuana vaping, the second largest increase in a single year since 1975. Between 2017 and 2018, nicotine use, driven by vaping, skyrocketed in teenagers. Researchers released data in September on the 2019 rates of teen vaping.
The survey, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and directed by Dr. Nora Volkow, demonstrates “how quickly vaping has penetrated the culture of teens,” she said.
Seven percent of eighth-graders reported vaping marijuana, up from 4.4 percent in 2018. The increases in 10th and 12th grades are almost identical. 19.4 percent said they vaped marijuana in 2019 compared to 12.4 percent in 2018.
The survey revealed that some kids vape marijuana almost every day: 3.5 percent of 12th-graders and 3 percent of 10th-graders. Dab pens, or wax pens, as they are commonly called, are easy to conceal and do not emit an odor.
No significant differences were found in the use of marijuana by teens who lived in states where recreational marijuana was legalized. Experts in substance abuse say that legalizing a substance may lead to an apparent drop in the risk of using it, particularly among teens.
Dr. Sharon Levy is the director of Boston Children’s Hospital’s adolescent drug use and addiction program. She said that there’s a misconception that marijuana is not addictive. It’s not unusual for me to meet kids and their parents who are unaware that these substances may be addictive.
Teenagers’ brains still develop and are, therefore, more susceptible to nicotine and THC. THC is the main psychoactive component in marijuana.
In general, marijuana is the most common illicit drug. This statistic has remained constant for many years. Since 2018, however, the number of eighth- and tenth-graders who say they use marijuana daily has increased significantly.
It may be years before we fully understand the health effects of vaping marijuana by so many teenagers. Inhaling THC deep into the lungs after vaporizing it has a more potent effect than rolling joints.
Levy says that vaping devices were invented in the early 1990s, and they “basically perfected the drug delivery,” he said.
Levy, NBC News, said that vapes can “get the drug down into your lungs where the rich vascular beds absorb these molecules very rapidly and send a real shot directly to your head.” Vape oils can be highly concentrated and deliver a higher dose of the drug than smoking.
Teens using concentrated marijuana are more likely to use other drugs
Vaping is on the rise at a time when other drug usage among teens is declining. Monitoring the Future found that opioid abuse and the use of medication to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorders have reduced significantly. The 12th graders who used LSD, heroin, and cocaine were at low levels, with a respective 3.6 percent, 2.2%, and 0.4 percent.
The percentage of seniors reporting alcohol consumption is lower than in previous years, even though slightly more than half reported drinking within the last year. The number of students reporting binge drinking has also decreased among the 10th and 12th grades.
Only 2.4 percent (12th graders) reported smoking regular cigarettes in 2018, down from 3.6 percent in 2018.
Vaping has, however, become an epidemic in teenagers. Researchers asked 12th graders to explain why they vaped. Most said that they did it for the flavor and experimentation. A growing number of teens are vaping to “relax or relieve tension.” The number of teens who reported being “hooked” by the devices has more than doubled from 3.6 to 8.1 percent.
Vaping is also linked to more than
EVALI is the acronym for e-cigarette and vaping-associated lung injury. The majority, but not necessarily all, of these cases have been linked with illicit THC vapes or weed pens.
Volkow stated that “these acute lung injuries serve as a reminder of how we sometimes embrace technology without fully understanding it.”
We do not yet know the effects of the chronic inhalation of vapor at very high temperatures. It may be harmful after two, three, or ten years,” Volkow added, adding that regulations are needed to ensure the quality of vapes on the market.
She said, “We don’t really want to see people suffering from severe lung inflammatory diseases that we haven’t seen before in decades from now.”
