Author: Aimee Cunningham / Source: Science News for Students
A new study gives the first U.S. estimates of teen and preteen vaping of marijuana — and the rates are relatively high.
The findings raise concerns about addiction and other long-term health risks, researchers say.E-cigarettes are battery-powered devices that vaporize liquids. Most e-liquids contain nicotine. That’s the chemical that makes tobacco addictive. But the devices also can vaporize dried marijuana leaves or buds. Or they can use oils or waxes made from the plant’s main active ingredient, THC. That’s short for tetrahydrocannabinol.
In fact, several things might make vaping marijuana appealing to kids, observes Bonnie Halpern-Felsher. For instance, she notes, vaping leaves less of the drug’s telltale odor than does smoking it. That may encourage teens to try it, she says. Halpern-Felsher works at the Stanford University School of Medicine in California. She was not involved in the new study. But as a developmental psychologist, she studies why teens and young adults make risky choices, such as using drugs.
Marijuana also may be easier to get as it is legal in some states for adults to buy and use this drug. And, she notes, changing public views may make its use seem more socially acceptable.
Millions of kids at risk
E-cigs are the most widely used tobacco products among U.S. youth. In contrast, data on teen vaping of marijuana had been fairly scant.
So a team from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Ga.,…The post Teen vaping of marijuana raises concerns about addiction appeared first on FeedBox.