Comparison of the locations where young adults smoke, vape, and eat/drink cannabis: Implications for harm reduction

Cannabis vaping and edible use are increasingly popular methods of cannabis use. These discreet methods could increase risk of cannabis-related problems by facilitating cannabis use in a wider range of settings.

A sample of 1018 college students were recruited to complete a survey about their health and behavior. Participants who used cannabis in the past year (35.1%, n = 357) answered questions about their cannabis use, including where they were the last time they smoked, vaped, or ate/drank cannabis, and their experience of cannabis-related problems.

Compared with cannabis smoking, participants were more likely to have vaped cannabis (15.8% smoked vs. 24.6% vaped; X² = 4.59, p = .032), and were slightly, but not statistically significantly, more likely to have used cannabis edibles (17.5% smoked vs. 24.2% used edibles; X² = 3.57, p = .059), in locations other than a private residence. For example, participants were more likely to have vaped cannabis in a car than to have smoked cannabis in a car (8.8% vaped vs. 3.5% smoked; X² = 4.26, p = .039). More frequent cannabis vaping was associated with driving while high on cannabis, even after accounting for overall frequency of cannabis use and other covariates (OR = 1.22, p = .047). More frequent cannabis vaping and edible use were associated with various cannabis-related problems, but, in general, these associations became statistically non-significant after accounting for overall frequency of cannabis use.

Cannabis vaporizers and edibles facilitate cannabis use in locations that require discretion. Increased availability of cannabis vaporizers and edibles could increase risk of cannabis-related problems by enabling use in more settings.