Sharp Rise Seen in College-Age Adults Vaping Marijuana and Nicotine

A new survey finds a sharp rise in the percentage of college-age adults who reported vaping marijuana and nicotine in 2019.

The annual Monitoring the Future survey found the percentage of college students ages 19 to 22 who said they vaped marijuana in the past 30 days rose from 5.2% in 2017 to 14% in 2019. Among their non-college-attending peers, marijuana vaping rose from 7.8% in 2017 to 17% in 2019.

The percentage of college students aged 19 to 22 who vaped nicotine rose from 6.1% in 2017 to 22% in 2019. Among young adults in that age group who did not attend college, nicotine vaping jumped from 7.9% to 18%.

“We are seeing an increasingly concerning trend,” Nora D. Volkow, M.D., Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, said in a news release. “Many young people may view vaping and cannabis use as ‘safer,’ but the reality is that nicotine is highly addictive, and cannabis can also be addictive, particularly in younger adults for whom the brain is still developing.”