Work

Knowledge and beliefs about blunts among youth in the United States

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: • Little survey research has examined youth knowledge and beliefs about blunts. • One-third of youth in our study thought that blunts do not contain nicotine. • Around half of youth thought that blunts were less addictive/harmful than cigars. • Black (vs white) youth had lower odds of knowledge that blunts contain nicotine. • Frequent use lowered odds of believing blunts are more addictive/harmful vs cigars. Blunts (i.e., cannabis rolled in cigar paper with or without tobacco) are a popular way of consuming cannabis. Little survey research has examined knowledge and beliefs about blunts, especially among youth who use cigars or are susceptible to cigar use. Participants were a convenience sample of N = 506 youth (ages 15–20) from the United States (US) recruited April-June 2023 who reported ever using little cigars or cigarillos (LCCs), past 30-day use of LCCs, or susceptibility to using LCCs. We used adjusted logistic and ordinal regression models to examine correlates of knowledge that blunts contain nicotine and, separately, relative addiction/harm perceptions for blunts vs. unmodified cigars containing only tobacco. One-third of youth (32.1 %) thought that blunts do not contain nicotine. Around half of youth thought that blunts were “much less” or “slightly less” addictive (45.0 %) and “much less” or “slightly less” harmful (51.5 %) than unmodified cigars. Youth who identified as Black/African American (vs. white) had lower odds of knowledge that blunts contain nicotine ( aOR = 0.51, 95 % CI: 0.30, 0.87). Youth who frequently used blunts were less likely to report that blunts were more addictive ( aOR = 0.39; 95 % CI: 0.24, 0.63) and harmful ( aOR = 0.31; 95 % CI: 0.19, 0.50 (vs. unmodified cigars) compared with youth who never used blunts. Our study with a sample of US youth—who have used or are susceptible to using LCCs—found that about 1 in 3 participants thought that blunts do not contain nicotine, and many believed blunts were less harmful and addictive than unmodified cigars.

Source: Preventive Medicine Reports

DOI: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2024.102884