Research & Resources

Researchers sought to determine behaviors related to the concurrent use or co-administration of cannabis and tobacco among young adults. They examined latent classes of tobacco and cannabis concurrent use and co-administration, as well as transitions between classes from 2016 to 2019, among a sample of young adult college students in Texas. Participants included 4,448 young adults in a longitudinal cohort study. Four latent classes emerged: non-use (58 percent of students) characterized by little or no probability of any use; general use (19 percent) characterized by some level of use of all behaviors; blunt and cannabis use (13 percent) characterized by high probabilities of cannabis use and co-administration with blunts; and concurrent and co-administration use (10 percent) with high probabilities of cigarette, cannabis, blunt, and spliff use. Most students remained in the same latent class from 2016 to 2019. While most students reported little or no tobacco and cannabis co-use, those who used cannabis or tobacco remained in their use classes over the course of the study. Based on the results, researchers proposed that public health advocates on college campuses consider prevention and cessation programs that incorporate the constellation of behaviors related to cannabis and tobacco co-use and educate students about the health consequences of co-use.

This paper, “Longitudinal patterns of cannabis and tobacco co-administration and concurrent use among young adult college students,” was funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the FDA Center for Tobacco Products and published in the journal Addictive behaviors.