Due to many changes in cannabis-related legislation over the past few decades, the use of cannabis for medical or recreational purposes has become legal in many places across Canada and the United States. The cannabis market is currently worth 33.1 billion dollars and is growing. It is said to increase by $84 billion by 2028. College-aged adults have the highest prevalence rate than any other age group. This study aims to characterize behavioral and psychosocial correlates of past 30-day Cannabis use (CU) among North American college students.
This study used data from the 2016-2017 Health Minds Study (HMS), which consists of data from 54 universities across North America. At each HMS university, a random sample of 4,000 students over age 18 were invited to participate in an anonymous online survey. 8,327 participants endorsed past 30-day CU, which was roughly 20.69% of participants who completed the HMS survey. The study focused on eight binary measures of psychosocial functioning: anxiety disorders, eating disorders, suicidal behavior including ideation, planning, and attempts, and ordinal variables measuring the supportiveness of social relationships.
The results of this study show that college-attending young adults who reported CU in the past 30 days had higher rates of depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, and behaviors, eating disorders, and violence victimization compared to those college-attending young adults who did not have CU in the past 30 days. These students who did use cannabis in the past 30 days also reported higher rates of alcohol and other drug use and lower rates of perceived supportive social relationships. With cannabis medical and recreational use becoming legalized in many places it is important to know the health effects that cannabis use has on vulnerable subgroups such as college-attending young adults. More research is needed to help develop interventions in college student populations.
Takeaway: College attending young adults that reported CU in the past 30 days had higher rates of depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts/behaviors, eating disorders, and violence victimization compared to those college attending young adults that did not have CU in the past 30 days.