When cannabis feels within reach, teens are far likelier to start using it

Led by Marie-Pierre Sylvestre, a professor at the School of Public Health at the Université de Montréal, the researchers drew on Quebec data from COMPASS, a pan-Canadian longitudinal study of the health behaviors of secondary school students.

Published in the journal Addiction, the analysis looked at 1,768 students from 11 Quebec schools who were followed between 2017 and 2019. All were nonusers of cannabis at the start of the study.

The researchers examined the extent to which two factors—having friends who use cannabis and perceiving cannabis as easy to obtain—contributed to initiation among those teens.

The results show that the two factors act in synergy: Having friends who use cannabis but not perceiving cannabis as accessible does not significantly multiply the risk, the researchers found.

On the other hand, believing that cannabis is easy to obtain, even without friends who use it, already increases the risk in a notable way. It is the combination of both that has the most pronounced effect.

Specifically, these adolescents had a 21.6-percentage-point higher risk of initiating cannabis use than youth who had no friends who used cannabis and perceived access as difficult.

“Adolescents who had friends who used cannabis and who perceived cannabis as easy to obtain had the highest probability of initiating use,” said Sylvestre, the study’s lead author.

Perception is key

The results suggest that the perception of easy access could help explain approximately 39% of the link between having friends who use cannabis and cannabis initiation, she added.

In other words, friends who use cannabis can make it subjectively more accessible in the eyes of the adolescent—whether by sharing products with them, facilitating contacts or simply normalizing the idea that cannabis is “within reach.”

A striking finding: More than three-quarters of students who had an opinion on the matter felt that cannabis would be easy to obtain, despite the restrictions on possession, production, sale and use introduced by Canada’s Cannabis Act of 2018.

That legislation made it legal across the country to use cannabis recreationally.

Simultaneous strategies recommended

The findings in the new study speak directly to schools, families and public policymakers, the researchers argue, recommending strategies that act simultaneously on the social environment of youth and on their perception of cannabis accessibility.

These include strengthening young people’s skills in refusing to consume cannabis, developing quality adult-youth relationships and establishing clear school norms around nonuse.

“What works in prevention is equipping young people, not just talking to them about cannabis,” said Sylvestre. “Interactive activities led by peers or community practitioners have a much greater impact than a lecture or just transmitting information.”

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Gaby Clark

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Andrew Zinin

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