Twice as many teens vaped marijuana in 2019 as in 2017, even as marijuana use among teens remained steady.
The findings, released Wednesday, come from the government’s wide-ranging annual “Monitoring the Future Survey” with the University of Michigan. The surge in vaping marijuana is bad news for public health officials, who made strides in reducing other types of drug use and who are trying to get ahead of a serious lung illness outbreak tied to vaping THC, the high-inducing chemical in marijuana.
The survey found 20.8% of 12th graders reported they vaped marijuana at some point during the last year. Tenth graders weren’t far behind at 19.4%, and 7% of eighth graders said they vaped marijuana. Each of these figures was more than double what they were in 2017.
Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which funded the survey, called the trend “very worrisome,” because she said vaping marijuana meant teenagers were inhaling high concentrations of THC, which would increase their chances of developing an addiction.
Making the issue even more complicated, there’s a deadly lung illness outbreak spreading that appears linked to vaping THC. The culprit for the illness appears to be vitamin E acetate, a thickening agent, and has put at least 2,409 people in the hospital and killed 52. Of those who got sick, 15% have been under the age of 18.
Vaping nicotine was already known to be popular among teens, and new data out in Wednesday’s report will help scientists better understand some of those trends as well. For instance, 11.7% of 12th graders said they vaped nicotine daily in 2019, and 60.9% said they tried vaping to see what it was like.
Vaping foes are likely to seize on these results, and others showing 41.7% of 12th graders vaped because they liked the flavors and that 8.1% of them vaped because they were hooked. The second figure represents a jump from only 0.8% in 2015.
In the face of rising e-cigarette use among teenagers, as well as the lung illness outbreak, President Trump said he would ban flavored e-cigarettes but has since backed off that commitment, and it’s not clear what actions the administration might take instead.
Vaping is illegal for most teenagers and is about to become more so. A bill poised to pass Congress this week would raise the legal age to buy tobacco, including e-cigarettes, from 18 to 21. Various health groups and members of Congress have urged the government to go further by imposing stricter limits on flavors, which they say entice teenagers by marketing fruity and candy-like flavors.
The “Monitoring the Future Survey” is given to 42,531 teenagers in 396 schools. Overall, substance use from alcohol to prescription painkillers is going down among teenagers. This year’s survey also showed only 2.4% of 12th graders smoked daily, compared to about 25% at its peak in 1997.
“In general, drug consumption by teens has been going down, but that trend seems to be reversed with exposure to vaping devices,” Volkow said.
