Teens Using E-Cigarettes to 'Vape' Pot: Survey

But researchers don't know how the kids are modifying the devices to get high

WebMD News from HealthDay

By Dennis Thompson

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, Sept. 7, 2015 (HealthDay News) -- There's new reason for parents to be concerned about e-cigarettes: nearly one in five kids who uses e-cigarettes may be using the devices to get high, a study finds.

And, parents may not always know it's happening.

"Police and parents report difficulty in detecting vaporized cannabis use because it is easily concealed by the absence of the pungent and characteristic odor of smoked cannabis," the study authors wrote.

A confidential survey revealed that 18 percent of e-cigarette users in Connecticut high schools have "vaped" marijuana at some point, or used an e-cigarette to get high. In addition, more than one-quarter of kids who describe themselves as dual users of both e-cigarettes and marijuana have used the devices get high, the researchers found.

The kids use the e-cigarette devices to burn hash oil or waxy hash "dabs," or simply burn dried pot leaves using the heat generated by the battery-powered devices, according to the study published online Sept. 7 in the journal Pediatrics.

Senior author Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin, an associate professor of psychiatry at Yale University School of Medicine, said she and her colleagues conducted the survey based on their earlier research into e-cigarettes, during which some students had mentioned that the devices can be used to get high.

Researchers still aren't certain exactly how kids are converting the e-cigarettes for marijuana use, Krishnan-Sarin said. They also can't say whether these results reflect kids who've only tried this once, or kids who've made a habit of getting high using their e-cigarettes.

"There's so much more about this that's unknown than is known," she said.

E-cigarette use among high schoolers tripled between 2013 and 2014, leaping from 4.5 percent to more than 13 percent, the researchers said in background information in the study.

In 2013, Krishnan-Sarin and her research team began to hear rumors of widespread use of e-cigarettes to get high. To check this out, the investigators anonymously surveyed almost 4,000 students at five high schools in Connecticut in spring 2014.

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