Canada: Mental Health And Marijuana Use Among Young, A New Study Looks Closely

According to a new study published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, “Worse mental health was consistently associated with current and lifetime cannabis use among youth," in Canada.

Currently, researchers are reviewing data from two major Canadian studies that show an association between mental health indicators and youth marijuana use, reported The GrowthOp.

What Does The Study Say?

The study aims to compare associations between mental health and weed use across samples among young people by “using data from two methodologically independent youth research studies in Canada, the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study and the Cannabis, Obesity, Mental health, Physical activity, Alcohol, Smoking, and Sedentary behavior (COMPASS) study.” =

Researchers aim “to affirm the potential for nationally representative cross-sectional analyses (HBSC) to replicate findings found in a longitudinal non-representative data source (COMPASS), enhancing the opportunity for causal inferences.”

Methods

According to the study, data were collected from grade 9 and 10 Canadian students participating in the 2017/18 HBSC and 2017/18 to 2018/19 waves of COMPASS.

"Using a 2-year linked sample of students participating in COMPASS, models examining the impact of mental health indicators on cannabis use initiation and maintenance over time were similarly fit using Poisson regression models to estimate relative risk," the study notes.

Results

According to the researchers, this is the first study to replicate associations between youth mental health and marijuana using nationally representative cross-sectional and longitudinal non-representative data sources.

“Similar associations between mental health problems and cannabis use were observed in both data sources,” the authors write. “The direction, magnitude, and precision estimates for restless sleep, loneliness, poor well-being, and cannabis use were highly comparable across both studies.”

Researchers concluded that declining mental health was consistently associated with current and lifetime cannabis use among youth.

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Photo: Courtesy Of Julia Koblitz On Unsplash