Cross-Substance Associations With Transitions in Cannabis and Nicotine Use in a Statewide Sample of Young Adults in Washington State.

Abstract

Objective: Understanding transitions in nicotine and cannabis use has implications for prevention and efforts to reduce harmful use. Focusing on cross-substance associations, we examined how use of one substance was associated with year-to-year transitions in frequency of use of the other among young adults in the context of legalized nonmedical cannabis.

Method: A statewide sample from Washington (N = 4,039; ages 18-25 at baseline) provided up to 3 years of annual data on past-month cannabis use and nicotine use (tobacco cigarettes and e-cigarettes/vaping). Manifest Markov models examined how use of each substance was associated with transitions in the other across categories of past-month no use, occasional use (1-19 days), and frequent use (≥20 days).

Results: Occasional and frequent nicotine use (vs. no use) predicted higher probability of transitioning from no cannabis use to occasional or frequent cannabis use and from occasional use to frequent use, whereas associations with cessation and de-escalation were inconsistent in direction, small in magnitude, and not statistically significant. Cannabis use positively predicted onset of nicotine use, and associations of cannabis use with escalation from occasional to frequent nicotine use, de-escalation in use, and cessation in use were small and inconsistent in direction.

Conclusions: The findings corroborate prior research on cannabis and nicotine use as risk factors to address in prevention efforts. The findings do not provide strong support for prioritization of dual abstinence in efforts to encourage reductions in or cessation of cannabis or nicotine use among young adults.