Marijuana Vaping At Its Highest Among Teens, New Study Reveals

Marijuana vaping is on a record high among teens, according to a new study. The Monitoring the Future survey found that the percentage of 12th graders who have vaped marijuana at least once every 30 days has doubled during 2018-19 compared to previous years.

The percentage of marijuana vapers increased from 7.5 percent to 15 percent for 8th, 10th and 12th graders in the United States, who were asked about their drug use for the survey. Monitoring the Future has been conducting the survey for 45 years.

“We are seeing a pretty remarkable increase in the use of vaping products to ingest marijuana,” Jack Stein, chief of staff at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, which funds the survey, told the Verge.

The United States has seen a recent spate in vaping-related deaths – a crisis that forced many countries to ban vapes altogether. The survey found that around 25 percent of teenagers had vaped nicotine in the past 30 days and 11.7 percent vaped every day. Around 8 percent of 12th graders said they are addicted to vaping, something only 3.6 percent admitted to in 2018.

“Next year, I imagine, we’ll see an increase in the perceived risk [of vaping],” Richard Miech, co-investigator of the study, told the Verge.

While the percentage of teenagers who smoke cigarettes remains small, vaping is gaining popularity because of the ease with which it can be used to ingest nicotine or marijuana. Teenagers are not substituting vaping with smoking, rather they are getting introduced to marijuana via vaping.

The survey also throws up some interesting findings. While marijuana use is increasing, the use of other substances such as opioids and alcohol is decreasing among teenagers.

Overall, alcohol remains the most used intoxicant among teenagers.