In a study published in the Pediatrics journal, some teens are now using electronic cigarettes to smoke marijuana. The research is the first scientific evidence that teens are using electronic cigarettes to vaporize cannabis as reported in NBC.
The use of electronic cigarettes has raised popularity among teenagers in recent years. Nearly one in five high school students who claimed to use electronic cigarettes to vaporize nicotine also use them to vaporize marijuana according to a survey of around 4,000 Connecticut teens.
Researchers from Yale University School of Medicine report that more than 30% have tried electronic cigarettes. Out of this number, 18% admitted to have used cannabis in their electronic cigarettes.
"When you looked at the kids who said they had both used both e-cigarettes and had experimented with cannabis in the past, the number went up even higher to around 27-percent," according to Krishnan-Sarin of Yale University.
According to the study, younger male students are more likely to use electronic cigarettes to vaporize cannabis. Socioeconomic status has no effect on the sample population.
The use of electronic cigarette among the five universities that participated are not the same, citing difference in policies imposed.
While the results are limited to Connecticut schools and may not be applicable to other states, the pattern is worrisome according to Dustin Lee in an email sent to Reuters. Lee is a post doctoral fellow at the Geisel School of Medicine in Dartmouth Collge New Hempshire.
"We know very little about the acute and long-term effects of high-potency THC on neurobiology and behaviour," Lee said in an email. "This is especially concerning for teens, who are in a critical time for development of brain structures that are integral in executive functioning."
The recent study done by Meghan Morean and her colleagues in Oberlin College Ohio has already mentioned the potential effects of the rising popularity of electronic cigarettes. They have foreseen that teens may be exposed to higher concentrations of tetrahydrocannabinol or THC.
Hash oil, a thick yellow resin extracted from marijuana is mostly used in electronic cigarettes and can be more potent than smoking marijuana in a conventional way.
