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Temourian AA, et al. Marijuana and E-cigarette Initiation Among US Adolescents: A Survival Analysis. Journal of Adolescent Health. Published 10 Dec 2023.
https://www.jahonline.org/article/S1054-139X(23)00590-6/fulltext

Prior literature suggests marijuana and e-cigarette initiation among adolescents is surpassing combustible cigarette uptake.

The authors used national longitudinal data from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health study from 2013 to 2018 to study 2,270 eight graders. They found that:

“Previous marijuana initiation was associated with later e-cigarette initiation (odds ratio = 6.88, 95% confidence interval [4.89, 9.67]), and previous e-cigarette initiation was associated with later marijuana initiation (odds ratio = 9.28, 95% confidence interval [6.86, 12.56]). By wave 5, adolescents were more than 42% likely to initiate marijuana and e-cigarettes.
Susceptibility to marijuana and e-cigarette products starts as early as eighth grade and increases over time. The use of one product is significantly related to later initiation for the other. Rather than addressing marijuana and nicotine as separate concerns, interventions may benefit by recognizing the closely related nature of these products.”

Stephen Hamann