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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Krista Richard, MA, Stéphane Racine, MPs, and Bruna Brands, PhD. Drug Strategy and Controlled Substances Programme, Health Canada, 123 Slater, Ottawa, ON K1A 1B9, Canada, (613) 946-3598, stephane_racine@hc-sc.gc.ca

OBJECTIVES: Youth is a time characterized by risk behaviours that may be associated with harms such as smoking tobacco or marijuana use. The relationships between age of initiation of tobacco and marijuana use by youth (aged 15 to 24) along with the implications for prevention and cessation programs and policies will be explored.

DESIGN: Results are based on data from the 2004 public use file of the Canadian Tobacco Use Monitoring Survey (CTUMS), a general population telephone based survey of Canadians aged 15 years and older.

ANALYSES: Respondents were classified according to pattern and sequence of use (no use, tobacco-only, marijuana-only, tobacco first, marijuana first, same age). The associations between marijuana and tobacco use were examined through logistic and multinomial regressions. Variables controlled in the model included: gender, age, region, household location.

RESULTS: Youth typically used tobacco earlier than marijuana and use of one substance predicted use of the other but a greater proportion reported lifetime experience with marijuana but not tobacco. Those who had smoked marijuana-only had the youngest age of initiation of all groups (14.15 yrs). These results are the reverse of those found for respondents 25 years of age and older.

DISCUSSION: The goal of the presentation will be to discuss how findings from this analysis can be examined to inform policies aimed at youth. The results clearly highlight that the relationship between tobacco and marijuana use may be changing for a significant portion of today's youth.

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the session, people attending will be able to

• Quantify the various patterns and sequence of initiation of tobacco smoking and marijuana use in Canada.
• Enumerate the predictors of marijuana use in Canadian youth aged 15 to 2
• Analyze the implications of knowledge about initiation to tobacco smoking or marijuana use for prevention and cessation programs and policies aimed at youth.

Keywords: Marijuana, Youth

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No