Race/ethnicity and marijuana use in the United States: Diminishing differences in the prevalence of use, 2006–2015

Abstract

Background Marijuana use has been decreasing in the past several years among adolescents, though variation in the extent and rate of decrease across racial/ethnic groups is inadequately understood. Methods The present study utilized nationally-representative data in Monitoring the Future from 2006–2015 to examine trends over time in past 30-day marijuana use. We examine whether differences in trends over time by race and ethnicity also differ by individual-level, school-level, and state-level factors. Sample included 131,351 8th grade students, 137,249 10th grade students, and 123,293 12th grade students; multi-level models and difference-in-differences tests were used. Results In 10th grade, Black students had a positive linear increase in marijuana use (est=0.04, SE=0.01, p<0.001), and the magnitude of the increase was significantly greater than among non-Hispanic White students (est=0.38, SE=0.009, p<0.001). The increase trend among Black students was greater among those in large class sizes. In 12th grade, all racial ethnic groups except non-Hispanic Whites demonstrated a linear increase in prevalence across time. The magnitude of the increase among Hispanic students was greater among those in urban areas and large class sizes. The magnitude of the increase among Black students was greater in states with a medical marijuana law before 2006 (est=0.06, SE=0.03, p=0.02), among other state-level covariates. Conclusion Together these results suggest that the next stage of public health approaches to reducing the harms associated with adolescent drug use should attend to shifting demographic patterns of use among adolescents and ensure that services and programmatic approaches to adolescent prevention are applied equitably.

Age, period and cohort effects in frequent cannabis use among US students: 1991–2018

“…Our analyses are consistent with and extend previous research; first, with a converging rate of frequent cannabis use among racial/ethnic groups . The convergence by racial/ethnic groups may be due to in part to the increased prevalence of blunt smoking, which is more common among black and older youths ; this is consistent with the increased rates of cannabis use disorder, which are most common among young black men compared to other racial/ethnic groups .…”

“…While trends are consistent even when stratified by demographic groups, the relationship between demographic groups and frequent cannabis use are themselves shifting across time. The prevalence of frequent cannabis use is converging by race/ethnicity and sex and diverging by parental education and age across time, which is consistent with previous research showing a complete convergence in use between black and white students [25], a shrinking gap in use between boys and girls in the most recent decade [26] and a growing gap in cannabis use across age during the past 3 decades [3]. To our knowledge, ours are the first data to suggest that cannabis use differences by socio-economic status among US adolescents are growing over time, indicative of the potential for an emerging health disparity.…”

“…The convergence by racial/ethnic groups may be due to in part to the increased prevalence of blunt smoking, which is more common among black and older youths ; this is consistent with the increased rates of cannabis use disorder, which are most common among young black men compared to other racial/ethnic groups . Given that black and other minority youth are increasing overall cannabis use prevalence , outpacing other racial/ethnic groups, these results in totality suggest that attention to increasing use among minority youth is increasingly critical to the health of minority adolescents. Secondly, period effects are underlying increases in cannabis use across a variety of previously published analyses throughout recent historical time‐periods focused primarily on adults .…”

“…Changes over time in cannabis use may vary by demographic characteristics. Although black youth have historically had lower prevalence of cannabis use compared with white youth, cannabis use among black students has increased during the past 10 years and converged with that of white students . Similarly, the prevalence of use by boys and girls has converged ; while prevalence has decreased among boys, there have been some recent increases among girls’ use.…”

Primary Causes of Hospitalizations and Procedures, Predictors of In-hospital Mortality, and Trends in Cardiovascular and Cerebrovascular Events Among Recreational Marijuana Users: A Five-year Nationwide Inpatient Assessment in the United States

“…African Americans were second most frequent consumers of marijuana, whereas, Asians and Pacific Islanders recorded the lowest frequency of marijuana use. Existing studies show that the use of marijuana among the race in the USA differed to converge in 2017 with an increasing number of African American students using the drug at least once or twice during the period of the study [ 8 ].…”