Journal: Annals of Medicine, 2022, doi: 10.1080/07853890.2022.2104922
Authors: James Michael Winer, Amy M. Yule, Scott E. Hadland & Sarah M. Bagley
Abstract:
Adolescence is a developmental stage defined in part by risk-taking. Risk-taking is critical to normal development and has important benefits including trying new activities and exploring new relationships. Risk-taking is also associated with the initiation of substance use. Because substance use often begins in adolescence, much focus has been on primary prevention with the goal of preventing initial substance use. Secondary or tertiary prevention approaches, such as counselling to eliminate substance use or offering treatment, are common approaches for adolescents with problematic substance use or a substance use disorder. While this is important, for some adolescents, treatment or cessation of use may not be desired. In these cases, Healthcare Practitioners (HCPs) can offer clear advice that incorporates harm reduction. Harm reduction, which is often applied for adults who use substances, reduces the negative impacts associated with drug use without requiring abstinence. Harm reduction is crucial to keeping adolescents safe and healthy and can offer opportunities for future engagement in treatment. The objective of this review is to describe strategies for integrating harm reduction principles in clinical settings that are developmentally appropriate. A patient-centered, harm reduction approach can validate perceived benefits of substance use, offer strategies to minimise harm, and advise reduction of use and abstinence.
KEY MESSAGES: Substance use often begins in adolescence and traditional approaches are often rooted in prevention framework. Harm reduction should be incorporated for adolescents with problematic substance use or a substance use disorder. This review offers strategies for integration of harm reduction principles tailored towards adolescents.
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Journal: Pediatrics, 2022; doi: 10.1542/peds.2022-056586
Authors: Alyssa F. Harlow, Erin A. Vogel, Alayna P. Tackett, Junhan Cho, Dae-Hee Han, Melissa Wong, Myles G. Cockburn, Steve Y. Sussman, Jennifer B. Unger, Adam M. Leventhal & Jessica L. Barrington-Trimis
Abstract:
Background and Objectives: Flavored non-tobacco oral nicotine products (eg, nicotine pouches and nontherapeutic nicotine gum, lozenges, tablets, gummies), are increasingly marketed in the United States. Prevalence of non-tobacco oral nicotine product use among adolescents is unknown.
Methods: We calculated prevalence of ever and past 6-month use of nicotine pouches, other non-tobacco oral nicotine products (ie, gum, lozenges, tablets, and/or gummies), e-cigarettes, cigarettes, hookah or waterpipe, cigars, cigarillos, and snus among high school students in Southern California between September and December 2021. Generalized linear mixed models tested associations of sociodemographic factors and tobacco-product use with use of any non-tobacco oral nicotine product.
Results: Among the sample (n = 3516), prevalence was highest for e-cigarettes (ever: 9.6%, past 6-month: 5.5%), followed by non-tobacco oral nicotine products (ever: 3.4%, past 6-month: 1.7%), and <1% for other products. Ever users of combustible tobacco (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] = 77.6; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 39.7–152) and ever users of noncombustible tobacco (aOR = 40.4; 95% CI= 24.3–67.0) had higher odds of ever using non-tobacco oral nicotine products, compared to never users of combustible and noncombustible tobacco. Use of any non-tobacco oral nicotine product was greater for Hispanic (versus all other races/ethnicities except Asian, aOR = 2.58; 95% CI = 1.36–4.87), sexual minority (versus heterosexual, aOR=1.63; 95% CI = 1.03–2.57), gender minority (versus male, aOR = 2.83; 95% CI = 1.29–6.19), and female (versus male, aOR=1.92, 95% CI = 1.20–3.06) participants.
Conclusions: Non-tobacco oral nicotine products were the second most prevalent nicotine product used by adolescents. They were disproportionately used by certain racial or ethnic, sexual, or gender minority groups, and those with a history of nicotine use. Adolescent non-tobacco oral nicotine product use surveillance should be a public health priority.
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Journal: Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy, 2022, doi: 10.1186/s13011-022-00480-4
Authors: Julia Dickson-Gomez, Sarah Krechel, Antoinette Spector, Margaret Weeks, Jessica Ohlrich, H. Danielle Green Montaque & Jianghong Li
Abstract:
Background: Beginning in the 1990s, nonmedical use of prescription opioids (POs) became a major public health crisis. In response to rising rates of opioid dependence and fatal poisonings, measures were instituted to decrease the prescription, diversion, and nonmedical use of POs including prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs), pain clinic laws, prescription duration limits, disciplining doctors who prescribed an excessive number of POs, and the advent of abuse deterrent formulations of POs. This paper explores the unintended effects of these policies in the descriptions of why people who use opioids transitioned from PO to injection or heroin/fentanyl use.
Methods: We conducted 148 in-depth-interviews with people who use prescription opioids nonmedically, fentanyl or heroin from a rural, urban and suburban area in three states, Connecticut, Kentucky and Wisconsin. Interviews with people who use opioids (PWUO) focused on how they initiated their opioid use and any transitions they made from PO use to heroin, fentanyl or injection drug use.
Results: The majority of participants reported initiating use with POs, which they used for medical or nonmedical purposes. They described needing to take more POs or switched to heroin or fentanyl as their tolerance increased. As more policies were passed to limit opioid prescribing, participants noticed that doctors were less likely to prescribe or refill POs. This led to scarcity of POs on the street which accelerated the switch to heroin or fentanyl. These transitions likely increased risk of overdose and HIV/HCV infection.
Conclusions: A careful analysis of how and why people say they transitioned from PO to heroin or fentanyl reveals many unintended harms of policy changes to prevent overprescribing and diversion. Results highlight the importance of mitigating harms that resulted from policy changes.
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Journal: PLoS One, 2022, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0271720
Authors: Barrett Wallace Montgomery, Meaghan H. Roberts, Claire E. Margerison & James C. Anthony
Abstract:
Liberalized state-level recreational cannabis policies in the United States (US) fostered important policy evaluations with a focus on epidemiological parameters such as proportions [e.g., active cannabis use prevalence; cannabis use disorder (CUD) prevalence]. This cannabis policy evaluation project adds novel evidence on a neglected parameter-namely, estimated occurrence of newly incident cannabis use for underage (<21 years) versus older adults. The project’s study populations were specified to yield nationally representative estimates for all 51 major US jurisdictions, with probability sample totals of 819,543 non-institutionalized US civilian residents between 2008 and 2019. Standardized items to measure cannabis onsets are from audio computer-assisted self-interviews. Policy effect estimates are from event study difference-in-difference (DiD) models that allow for causal inference when policy implementation is staggered. The evidence indicates no policy-associated changes in the occurrence of newly incident cannabis onsets for underage persons, but an increased occurrence of newly onset cannabis use among older adults (i.e., >21 years). We offer a tentative conclusion of public health importance: Legalized cannabis retail sales might be followed by the increased occurrence of cannabis onsets for older adults, but not for underage persons who cannot buy cannabis products in a retail outlet. Cannabis policy research does not yet qualify as a mature science. We argue that modeling newly incident cannabis use might be more informative than the modeling of prevalences when evaluating policy effects and provide evidence of the advantages of the event study model over regression methods that seek to adjust for confounding factors.
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Journal: JAMA Network Open, 2022, doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2022.23277
Authors: Ruoyan Sun, David Mendez & Kenneth E. Warner
Abstract:
Importance: Electronic cigarette (e-cigarette) use has been reported to increase the likelihood of future cigarette smoking among adolescents. The prospective association between e-cigarette use and cannabis use has been less clear, especially in recent years.
Objective: To examine the association between e-cigarette use among cannabis-naive adolescents and cannabis use 1 year later.
Design, setting, and participants: The Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) Study, a nationally representative cohort study, uses a 4-stage, stratified probability sample design to select participants aged 12 years or older from the US civilian, noninstitutionalized population. This study sample included 9828 cannabis-naive adolescents at the baseline survey who participated in both wave 4.5 (2017-2018) and wave 5 (2018-2019) of PATH.
Exposures: e-Cigarette use, assessed by ever use, past 12-month use, and past 30-day use.
Main outcomes and measures: Cannabis use in wave 5, assessed by past 12-month and past 30-day use. Multivariable logistic regressions assessed the association between e-cigarette use and cannabis use 1 year later. Results were weighted to produce nationally representative findings.
Results: Of the 9828 adolescents included in the analysis, 5361 (57.3%) were aged 12 to 14 years, 5056 (50.7%) were male, and 4481 (53.0%) were non-Hispanic White. After adjustment for sociodemographic characteristics, environmental factors, other substance use, and sensation seeking, e-cigarette use among cannabis-naive adolescents was associated with increased likelihoods of both self-reported past 12-month and past 30-day cannabis use 1 year later. The adjusted relative risks (aRRs) of subsequent past 12-month cannabis use with ever use of e-cigarettes was 2.57 (95% CI, 2.04-3.09), with past 12-month use of e-cigarettes was 2.62 (95% CI, 2.10-3.15), and with past 30-day use of e-cigarettes was 2.18 (95% CI, 1.50-2.85). The aRRs of subsequent past 30-day cannabis use with ever use of e-cigarettes was 3.20 (95% CI, 2.10-4.31), with past 12-month use of e-cigarettes was 3.40 (95% CI, 2.17-4.63), and with past 30-day use of e-cigarettes was 2.96 (95% CI, 1.52-4.40).
Conclusions and relevance: This cohort study’s findings suggest a strong association between adolescent e-cigarette use and subsequent cannabis use. However, despite the strong association at the individual level, e-cigarette use seems to have had a minimal association with the prevalence of youth cannabis use at the population level.
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