According to U.S. study, teenagers who use e-cigarettes may be twice as likely to smoke marijuana than their peers who have never used e-cigarettes.
The study found that teenagers in the age range of 12 to 14 were 2.7 times more likely to smoke marijuana if they tried vaping. For older adolescents the number was 1.6 times higher to try marijuana if they used e-cigarettes.
According to the lead study author Hongying Dai of Children’s Mercy Hospital as well as the University of Missouri-Kansas City, “The brain is still developing during the teen years, nicotine exposure might lead to changes in the central nervous system that predispose teens to dependence on other drugs of abuse.”
“Experimenting with e-cigarettes might also increase youth’s curiosity about marijuana, reduce perceived harm of marijuana use, and increase the social access to marijuana from peers and friends,” Dai also said.
Teens were surveyed twice, one year a part, as part of the survey. 27% of the teens who admitted to using e-cigarettes had used marijuana a year later.
