Student Well-Being

E-Cigarettes Aren’t Just for Tobacco: Students Use Them for Marijuana, Too

By Sasha Jones — September 21, 2018 1 min read
  • Save to favorites
  • Print

Nearly 1 in 3 high school students and 1 in 4 middle school students have reported having smoked marijuana using electronic cigarettes, according to a survey analysis published this week.

An analysis of 2016’s National Youth Tobacco Survey, which questions over 20,000 students, found that 8.9 percent of them said they have smoked marijuana using an e-cigarette. 2015’s analysis yielded similar results; approximately one-third of middle and high school students reported using e-cigarettes to smoke non-nicotine substances that year.

“Shifts in social acceptability and access to cannabis could occur as several states consider legalized cannabis sales for adults,” the research letter, posted in JAMA Pediatrics, said.

The survey comes after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that youth e-cigarette use “has reached an epidemic proportion.” As part of the announcement, the FDA gave major manufactures 60 days to make plans to limit sales to minors, or see their product pulled from the market.

Photo: Marshfield High School Principal Robert Keuther displays vaping devices that were confiscated from students in Marshfield, Mass.

--Steven Senne/AP

Related Tags:

A version of this news article first appeared in the Rules for Engagement blog.