Marijuana use, pot smoking most common among US highschool students: study

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Cigarette smoking among teens has declined over the past years as marijuana becomes increasingly popular. The study surveyed teens in grades 9 through 12 and found that exclusive use of marijuana doubled to 10.2 percent from 4.2 percent in the study period. Use of tobacco products decreased to 7.4 percent from 20.5 percent in 1997. The details of the study are published in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Authors note that the reason why marijuana usage is a trend among teens may be because of the legalization of it in some states in the country. Due to its legalization, teens may view it as being safer than tobacco. Additionally, flavored tobacco products such as hookah and e-cigarettes were not accounted for in the new study.

"Parents should be aware that despite significant declines since 1997, approximately 30 percent of white, black and Hispanic U.S. high school students were current users of cigarettes, cigars or marijuana in 2013," said Dr. Timothy McAfee, lead author of the study from the CDC Office on Smoking and Health, in an email to Reuters. "It's also important to note that this does not include other tobacco products such as hookah and e-cigarettes, which have become increasingly popular among U.S. youth in recent years.

The researchers also tried to examine other defining factors such as the effect of marijuana on whites, blacks and Hispanics. They found that cigarette, cigar or marijuana use among blacks and whites decreased over the study period until 2007. Substituting weed for cigarettes among blacks and Hispanics rose over the years.

The researchers acknowledge that there are limitations in their study. Besides not including various tobacco products that are trending among teens today, they stated that the study may not be keen on relying on the honest word of teens when surveyed about their tobacco or cigarette habits.

"We are seeing an evolution in the culture and pattern of trends in youth tobacco product and marijuana use in several regions of the country, which makes the landscape for parents, teachers and school administrators quite different today than in prior years," said Adam Leventhal, from University of Southern California's Health Emotion and Addiction Laboratory, via Fox News.

He adds that teens may be on to new tobacco products that their parents may not know about and thus would need more research in order to study the effect of marijuana on teens today.

"Vaping - whether it's solutions with nicotine, marijuana preparations, or just drug-free solutions—is easy for teens to conceal because the devices can be set to release non-visible vapor and the smell of such vapors is much less odorous than tobacco or marijuana smoking," Leventahl said, who is not involved in the study.