Nicotine and marijuana attitudes among flavor-only vaping youth: New evidence from Monitoring the Future.

Introduction:
This article examines the association between flavor-only vaping and attitudes concerning nicotine and marijuana use in a sample of high school students with no history of nicotine or marijuana use. The study aims to determine whether flavor-only vaping is associated with the perceived risk and disapproval of using these substances.

Key Points:

* The study used data from the 2017 cohort of the Monitoring the Future Study (MTF).
* Eight items pertaining to drug attitudes were constructed, including cigarette use attitudes, smokeless tobacco use attitudes, nicotine vaping attitudes, and marijuana use attitudes.
* Flavor-only vaping was not significantly associated with the odds of failing to disapprove or perceive the risk of cigarette or smokeless tobacco use.
* However, flavor-only vaping was significantly associated with the odds of failing to disapprove and perceive the risk of nicotine and marijuana use.
* The associations were more pronounced for recent and very recent flavor-only vaping.
* Covariates such as grade, sex, race/ethnicity, urbanicity, parental education, lifetime alcohol use frequency, peer substance use, unstructured socializing with peers, school attachment, academic performance, risk propensity, daily internet/social media use, diet quality, and low parental supervision were included in the analysis.
* The results suggest that flavor-only vaping is associated with lower levels of perceived risk and disapproval of nicotine and marijuana use.

Main Message:
The study found that flavor-only vaping is significantly associated with lower levels of perceived risk and disapproval of nicotine and marijuana use, indicating that flavor-only vaping may influence attitudes towards using these substances. This finding is significant as it suggests that flavor-only vaping could be a potential risk factor for the use of nicotine and marijuana products. Therefore, regulatory measures should consider the potential risks associated with flavor-only vaping, especially among youth populations.

Boccio CM, Jackson DB, Leal WE. Nicotine and marijuana attitudes among flavor-only vaping youth: New evidence from Monitoring the Future. Addictive behaviors. 2020;102:106186. doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2019.106186