Cannabis and young people - a Tobacco control issue?

Amanda Amos - Edinburgh university

Study 1

Method: 8 single sex focus groups of 4 - 7 participants
Participants: 15 - 16 year old smokers from Edinburgh
When: May-June 2002
Funding: Europe against cancer

Study 2

Method: 48 paired interviews between friends/colleagues
Participants: 99 16 - 19 year old smokers form Lothian
When: January - June 2002
Funding: Chief scientists office SEHD

Susan Wiltshire - Public health sciences, Edinburgh university
Yvonne Bostock - Freelance consultant
Sally Haw - NHS health Scotland
Ann McNeil - freelance consultant

Gender and cannabis use

You don't see many girls smoking hash - its more a boy thing
(focus group male C2DE)

I don't really know any guy that just smokes cigarettes but don't smoke cannabis, whereas girls would just smoke cigarettes
(Interview, male, university)

I used to when I went out with this boy but when I stopped going out with him, I stopped. I only really smoked [cannabis] when I was with him
(Interview female unemployed)

Cannabis and smoking - starting to smoke

I used to smoke hash, then I when couldn't get it or didn't have it I smoked fags
(focus group male 2CDE)

I usually just smoke a joint, I don't really smoke cigarettes, but at weekends obviously if I'm out, you can't smoke it if you're out. That's when I would smoke a cigarette
Interview male unemployed)

I've quite a few good friends that smoke and they would offer it around and I'd take one. I had smoked NOT cigarettes [dope] .. and think because I done that it didn't seem like a very big deal to me at a party [to smoke fags]. A cigarette didn't feel such a big deal when I came to smoke it. I didn't think I'd get addicted.

Re-enforcing smoking

Like you really just use the fag to roll a joint and if you've not got any hash, you just smoke your fags
(Focus group male ABC1)

M: You smoke both really because somebody will go "Aye give me a fag for a joint" and then you'd give them a fag and then...
IntL You swap a fag for a joint
M: Aye, they still need it to roll it and then you tend to have the fag while your waiting for them to roll it
(focus group C2DE)

Cannabis and smoking cessation

I've tried to stop smoking, but like I say, the green [cannabis], You can't go without a fag for, well, I can go without smoking it sometimes, but you need it for your hash
(focus group male ABC1)

I was still having a sneaky fag now and again, still smoking weed. Started smoking weed heavily and then it was like a Friday, Saturday, Sunday drinking, so just smoked fags then [started again]
(Interview male unemployed)

When I was younger , where I stay there is a lot of trouble and fighting and things like that. I found if I was having a smoke I wasn't going out and getting involved with that - relax, just get stoned.
(Interview, male unemployed)

I don't intend to like [stay a cigarette smoker], just now, while I'm young 'cuase I don't want to end up messing my life up. Going out, getting involved in gangs and, you know, stuff like that. So I'd rather just sit in with a few friends and just get melted and not be able to go out.
(Focus group, male ABC1)

I wish I could stop smoking both to be truthful, But like then I'd go out [on the streets], I'd probably be in jail
(focus group male ABC1)

M: you still need fags for grass though, cause it doesn't burn properly
M: It's hard to explain. The way a fag burns right, it's totally different to the way, you Know, if you roll a green joint without anything in it, it wouldn't, you don;t get such a good suck, you put a bit of fag in it lasts longer.
It would just burn it all off
M: aye
M: Yeah its the hash that does the trick like, but the fag helps
(focus group male ABC1)

NB - Conclusions were that cannabis and tobacco are closely linked, but no suggestion of a safer smoking campaign for cannabis like toke pure . Cannabis seen as a way to avoid the dangers the of drink and street culture.