New research has revealed that high school students are using electronic cigarettes to vaporize cannabis.
According to a new study conducted by Meghan Morean, an assistant professor of psychology at Oberlin College in Ohio, high school students are using electronic cigarettes to not only vaporize nicotine but also cannabis.
Morean and team surveyed more than 3,800 students at five Connecticut high schools for their study.
The survey report found that of students who had used e-cigarettes, 18 percent had used them to vaporize cannabis in some form, including hash oil and wax infused with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive cannabis ingredient.
About 15 percent of cannabis users admitted they’d used hash oil in an e-cigarette device, and 3 percent said they’d used THC-infused wax.
“Forms of cannabis that can be vaporized, like hash oil, can be many times stronger than marijuana that is smoked,” Morean said.
“This is a relatively novel way of using marijuana, and kids are using it at a fairly high rate.”
“The smell of vaping marijuana isn’t as strong as smoking it, plus the similarity in appearance of hash oil and nicotine solutions make this a really inconspicuous way of using marijuana.”
“Also of concern, the THC concentrations of vaporized hash oil and waxes can exceed that of dried cannabis by four to 30 times,” the research team noted.
The researchers found that teenagers in the study were 27 times as likely to use e-cigarettes to vaporize cannabis as adults who use e-cigarettes. Male and younger students were more likely to use e-cigarettes to vaporize cannabis than female and older students, but socioeconomic status was not a factor.
The researchers don’t know how representative their study is of the whole country as they have surveyed only a handful of high schools in a single state.
“I think we need more evidence on this, not just from other high schools in Connecticut,” said Dr. Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, a professor of psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine, who oversaw the study.
“We also need evidence, similar evidence from other states in the U.S., especially states in which marijuana is legal,” she said.
“It would be interesting to see if rates differ in terms of how teens are using this product.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, marijuana can cause several health problems such as short-term memory loss, brain abnormalities, decreased sperm count and even lung damage.
