The compiled data indicated that mental health status significantly affects whether adolescents who use e-cigarettes will begin using cannabis. However, highlighted the research team, the likelihood of this happening varied based on the level of mental well-being of the individual teen.
“We know from existing literature that e-cigarette use is associated with subsequent cannabis use, particularly in youth and young adults. We also know that some population subgroups, such as certain minority populations and those with mental health problems, are more likely to use tobacco products,” said Jidong Huang, associate professor of health management and policy in the School of Public Health and the study’s corresponding author. “What we need to better understand is the link between e-cigarette use and subsequent cannabis use among those subgroups.”
“Mental health problems are generally associated with higher levels of tobacco use and cannabis use, so our hypothesis was that e-cigarette users with mental health problems are going to be more likely to initiate cannabis use compared with e-cigarette users without mental health problems,” added Huang. “But what we found was that there is a great deal of nuance based on the type of mental health problems that e-cigarette users are facing.”
For every teen who vapes regularly nearly FIVE adults quit smoking
Meanwhile, using the latest CDC NYTS & NHIS data, recent infographic graphs by CASAA show that not only is the claim there’s a “new generation being hooked on nicotine” false, but that actually for every one teen who vapes regularly nearly FIVE adults quit smoking.
The graphs show that there are currently 3.95 million current vapers who are former smokers, 2.74 million vapers who are non-regular smokers, and 2.44 vapers who are current smokers.
Of the 2.06 million teen vapers, 1.25 million vaped at least once a month, while 810,000 vaped for at least 20 times last month. Most importantly, revealed the infographic, most vaping experimentation does not continue beyond high school, and smoking rates keep dropping among both teens and young adults.
Read Further: Georgia State University
Another Study Says There is no Proof That Vaping is Gateway to Smoking
