According to the study, adults who consume cannabis daily do not find smoking harmful

According to the study, adults who consume cannabis daily do not find smoking harmful

A growing number of Americans are using cannabis as it is legalized for recreational use in a rapidly growing number of US states. There are many questions about what impact legalization will have on the health of adults and adolescents.

A new study led by Dr. Renee Goodwin, a professor at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH), shows that increased cigarette consumption is a possibility. While cigarette use in the United States has been declining for decades, a new study finds that adults who use cannabis daily do not perceive smoking a pack per day to be as harmful as those who do not use cannabis in the United States, that risk perception plays a key role in predicting substance use, and that risk perception is related to the Since cannabis use has steadily declined with legalization, these results were somewhat surprising.

Researchers used data from adults ages 18 and older in the 2020 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, a representative survey of U.S. residents. Participants' responses to a question about the extent to which people risk physical and other harm to themselves if they smoke one or more packs of cigarettes per day were compared between those who use cannabis daily and those who have not used cannabis in the past year. 62% of adults who use cannabis daily perceived pack-a-day cigarette consumption as a “major” health risk, compared to 73% of those who had not used cannabis in the past year.

“Tobacco control has done tremendous work in recent decades in educating the public about the physical health risks associated with tobacco use, and particularly cigarette smoking,” said Goodwin, also an associate professor at the Columbia Mailman School of Public Health. However, their previous work shows that cigarette use is much more common among cannabis users, and results suggest that cannabis legalization may lead to an increase in cannabis use and cannabis cigarette co-use among adults.

We asked ourselves what that could be. Our results suggest that reduced risk perception of daily cigarette consumption may be a factor.”

Dr. Renee Goodwin, professor at the CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy

Dr. Goodwin discussed her work, and particularly that of Canadian colleagues, at a recent public hearing on a law that would ban cannabis packaging that targets children in New York's Suffolk County. Results from recent studies in Canada, where cannabis is federally legal, show increases in cannabis use among adults, but no significant increases in cannabis use among youth since the last study in 2022.

“The data suggests that plain packaging is a measure that can maximize the safe and effective rollout of cannabis legalization that ensures and protects the health, safety and well-being of all members of our community,” Goodwin said. “Banning product packaging that mimics foods and candy traditionally marketed to children can reduce potential unintended harm to the most vulnerable members of our community from accidental ingestion/poisoning, which has exploded in recent years in the U.S. as well as among children and adolescents intentionally using these products.”

Source:

CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy

Reference:

Goodwin, R.D., et al. (2022) Everything Old is New Again: Creating and Maintaining a Population-Level “Common Reality” of the Health Risks Associated with Cigarette Use to Both Reduce Prevalence and Eliminate Disparities in Cigarette Use Among All Americans. Nicotine and Tobacco Research. doi.org/10.1093/ntr/ntac177.

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