New findings show more teens are using marijuana in e-cigarettes.
Researchers combed through the National Youth Tobacco Survey, where U.S. middle and high school students reported how often they smoked in a month, in a year, and in their lifetime.
“This study found out a large increase in kids vaping marijuana -- from 11% to 14%,” Hongying “Daisy” Dai, Associate Professor at the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Public Health said.
The data was published in The Journal of the American Medical Association. It showed that in 2018, just under 43% of students who had used e-cigarettes at least once and about 54% of current e-cigarette users reported using marijuana in e-cigarettes. Among people who used multiple tobacco products, that number was about 72%.
This comes as a broader survey also shows marijuana vaping made some of the biggest increases ever measured among high school seniors last year. Health experts say the popularity comes in part from the easy-to-conceal nature of electronic cigarettes. Now, some want to make it harder for teens to access these drugs.
“I think a comprehensive tobacco control to ban flavor and raising the age of tobacco use to 21 years old are critically needed,” Dai said.
States including Hawaii, California, New Jersey, Oregon, Maine and Massachusetts, along with several local governments, have already raised the tobacco buying age to 21. On Wednesday, Montana's health department began enforcing a statewide emergency ban on the sale of flavored vape products.
Additional reporting from Newsy affiliate CNN.
