Columbia University Study Reports a Major Increase in Cannabis Vaping for All Adolescents

After a major study conducted by the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, it was found that cannabis vaping has become the most popular delivery method for cannabis among adolescents, and frequency of use is also increasing. The changes were most prominent among high-school seniors, which nearly tripled in the last 2 years from 5 to 14 percent.

The findings are based on the U.S.-based representative annual survey, Monitoring the Future, a population of 51,052 school-attending adolescents. Schools were randomly selected and invited to participate for two years.

“Heavy and frequent use of cannabis is increasing among U.S. adolescents, and vaped systems for products for both cannabis and nicotine are growing in number so understanding the prevalence and patterns of frequent cannabis vaping is important public health information for prevention,” said Katherine Keyes, PhD, professor of epidemiology at Columbia Mailman School. “Given rising concerns about cannabis vaping in terms of safety, and potential for transition to cannabis use disorder especially at frequent levels of use, these results indicate a necessity for public health intervention and increased regulation.”

"Prevalence increased across grades, with the largest burden among high school seniors for whom past-30-day prevalence almost tripled from 5 percent (2017) to 14 percent (2019). The one-year increase in this grade from 2018 to 2019 (7.5 percent to 14 percent) is the second largest one-year increase in any type of substance use prevalence ever tracked by Monitoring the Future."

Read more findings from the study, and find links to the study in the original Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health website