Newswise — PULLMAN, Wash. – More U.S. high school seniors reported vaping cannabis in states where it is legal only for medical purposes than states where all adult use is permitted – a study finding that surprised the researchers.
About 27% of twelfth graders in medical marijuana states reported vaping cannabis compared to 19% in states that prohibited cannabis or allowed it for adult use, according to the Washington State University study.
“More than a quarter of our youth in medical states were vaping cannabis. That’s a lot,” said Christian Maynard, a WSU sociology Ph.D. student and first author of the study published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence Reports. “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.”
For this study, Maynard and his advising professor, WSU sociologist Jennifer Schwartz, analyzed responses from 3,770 high school seniors to the 2020 Monitoring the Future survey, a project which has been surveying U.S. youth since 1975.
The researchers also analyzed a subset of 556 participants who had also answered questions about access to cannabis vaping products and risk perceptions. They found that 62% of the high school seniors in medical marijuana states reported very easy access to cannabis vaping cartridges or “carts,” and only 31% saw regular cannabis use as a great risk.
In both prohibited and adult use states,…