A new study argues that teens and young adults who use electronic cigarettes for vaping are more inclined to use cannabis. The paper explores data uncovered by previous research and mentions that the chance of consuming marijuana will grow by up to three or four times among youth who prefer vaping.
Young adolescents will experience a higher risk in comparison to young adults with an age which varies between 18 and 24 years.
According to the author of the study, the risk is higher for but groups, but up to double for the younger ones. During the study, the researcher analyzed 21 papers which observed 130,000 participants.
It was already thought that young brains are more susceptible to substance addiction in comparison to mature ones, which are more resilient.
New research links vaping to cannabis use
Nicotine and cannabis work in a similar manner as they stimulate neural pathways which are linked to feelings of reward and pleasure. It is important to keep in mind the fact that the paper doesn’t establish nor argues that there is a clear link between vaping and cannabis use, but it does join a series of papers and articles which note that exposure to vaping could contribute to the wish to smoke marijuana.
A strong link was encountered in young participants who combine vaping with tobacco and alcohol consumption. While this can be associated with a general susceptibility to substances, in general, the paper in question argues that certain factors like addiction or mental illness were limited for the sake of accuracy.
Statistics show that vaping has become quite popular among youth in Canada and the US, while also inferring that this is a global trend since many tend to argue that vaping is harmless in comparison to smoking regular cigarettes.
Some papers argue that vaping can also pave the way to smoking real cigarettes in the future. Addiction is also a risk as they will feel the need to vape regularly.
