Cigarettes a gateway to marijuana: study

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“We also found that students who smoked both tobacco and marijuana were more likely to smoke more tobacco than those who smoked only tobacco,” said study author Megan Moreno associate professor of paediatrics at the University of Washington. She presented the research at the US Paediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting held recently.

Moreno and her colleagues randomly selected incoming college students from two universities ‘ one in the Northwest and one in the Midwest ‘ to participate in the longitudinal study. Students were interviewed prior to entering college and again at the end of their freshman year regarding their attitudes, intentions and experiences with substances.

Specifically, students were asked if they had used tobacco or marijuana ever in their lives and in the past 28 days. Researchers also assessed the quantity and frequency of marijuana and tobacco use in the past 28 days.

Results showed that prior to entering college, around a thirds (33 percent) of the 315 participants reported lifetime tobacco use, and almost half (43 percent) of lifetime users were current users. In addition, tobacco users were more likely to have used marijuana than those who did not use tobacco.

By the end of their first year, 66 percent of participants who reported tobacco use prior to entering college remained current users with an average of 34 tobacco episodes per month. Of these, more than half (53 percent) reported concurrent marijuana use. Overall, users of both substances averaged significantly more tobacco episodes per month than current users of tobacco only (42 vs. 24).

Source: EurekAlert!

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