E-cigarette and Cannabis Social Media Posts Pose Risks for Teens

The following is excerpted from an online article posted by MedicalXpress.

Teens who see social media posts showing cannabis or e-cigarettes, including from friends and influencers, are more likely to later start using those substances or to report using them in the past month, according to surveys done by researchers at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.

Viewing such posts was linked to cannabis use, as well as dual use of cannabis and e-cigarettes (vapes). Dual use refers to youth who have used both cannabis and e-cigarettes at some point. The results are published in JAMA Network Open.

“While the rate of e-cigarette use is declining, our study shows that exposure to e-cigarette content on social media still contributes to the risk of using e-cigarettes with other substances, like cannabis,” said Julia Vassey, MPH, a health behavior researcher in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine.

The study also helps clarify how certain types of social media posts relate to teen substance use. Researchers surveyed more than 7,600 teens across two studies: a longitudinal study to understand whether viewing cannabis or e-cigarette posts on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube relates to a teen’s later choice to start using either substance or both, and a second survey looking at whether an association exists between the source of the content— friends, influencers, celebrities or brands—and substance use.

Researchers found that teens who had frequently seen e-cigarette posts on TikTok were more likely to have started using cannabis or started dual use of both cannabis and e-cigarettes. No such pattern was found for Instagram or YouTube. The data collected allowed researchers to look at platform-specific results for e-cigarette posts, but not for cannabis posts.

“This is consistent with previous research showing that, of the three platforms, TikTok is probably the strongest risk factor for substance use,” Vassey said.

In the second survey, those who saw e-cigarette posts from friends were more likely to have been dual users of cannabis and e-cigarettes in the past month. Those who saw cannabis posts from friends were more likely to have used cannabis in the past month or to have been dual users of cannabis and e-cigarettes.

The link between e-cigarette posts and cannabis use is what researchers call a “cross-substance association” and may be explained by the similar appearance of nicotine and cannabis vaping devices, Vassey said.

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2025-06-cigarette-cannabis-social-media-pose.html