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New data show rapid rise in youth marijuana, nicotine vaping

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New data show rapid rise in youth marijuana, nicotine vaping

Health officials worry vaping puts new generation at risk for addiction

PORTLAND, Ore. – While overall use of marijuana among Oregon youth has remained flat, the primary way they’re using the substance – vaping – has dramatically increased, an Oregon Health Authority analysis has found.

This finding adds to evidence that vaping is subjecting many more youth to addiction. New data show one in four Oregon 11th-graders reporting vaping a nicotine product, with youth use of e-cigarettes like Juul increasing nearly 80 percent between 2017 and 2019. Marijuana use changed dramatically as well, according to the data, with youth shifting from smoking marijuana to vaping.

Youth vaping of marijuana increased 295 percent – from 11 percent to 44 percent among 11th-graders using marijuana – between 2017 and 2019, even as 11th-grade overall marijuana use stayed constant at 20 percent. The data come from Oregon Healthy Teens (OHT), a survey of middle- and high-school students that OHA administers every two years.

In Oregon, youth vaping overlaps with use of conventional tobacco and flavored tobacco products, the OHT analysis showed. More than half of Oregon eighth- and 11th-graders who use tobacco use flavored tobacco. Roughly half of all youth who currently use conventional tobacco products started with vape products. Nearly two in five Oregon 11th-grade vape users also currently smoke conventional cigarettes.

A February 2019 study found that young people who vape e-cigarettes are nearly three times as likely to start smoking cigarettes as peers who don’t vape.

OHA continues to participate in the investigation of a nationwide outbreak of respiratory injuries associated with use of vaping devices. It is working with local public health and health care partners to track related illnesses in Oregon, which now has 12 cases, including two deaths.

OHA advises the public not to use e-cigarettes or vape products. Those who want to quit are urged to take advantage of free cessation resources, including:

Oregon’s Alcohol and Drug Helpline: 800-923-4357 or text RecoveryNow to 839863.

 

Eric Gleason, MS, DBH
Health Care Integration & Promotion Director /
Public Information Officer
281 LaClair Street Coos Bay, OR 97420
541-266-6741 | eric.gleason@chw.coos.or.us
Crisis Line: 541-266-6800
Coos County is an Affirmative Action/EEO | TTY Relay: 7-1-1

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