Challenging the “Inoffensiveness” of Regular Cannabis Use by Its Associations with Other Current Risky Substance Use—A Census of 20-Year-Old Swiss Men

Gerhard Gmel,Jacques Gaume,Pierre-André Michaud,Jean-Bernard Daeppen,Carole Willi,Jacques Cornuz

doi:10.3390/ijerph7010046

Abstract

3,537 men enrolling in 2007 for mandatory army recruitment procedures were assessed for the co-occurrence of risky licit substance use among risky cannabis users. Risky cannabis use was defined as at least twice weekly; risky alcohol use as 6+ drinks more than once/monthly, or more than 20 drinks per week; and risky tobacco use as daily smoking. Ninety-five percent of all risky cannabis users reported other risky use. They began using cannabis earlier than did non-risky users, but age of onset was unrelated to other risky substance use. A pressing public health issue among cannabis users stems from risky licit substance use warranting preventive efforts within this age group.

Highlights

Experts have repeatedly seen cannabis use as being relatively inoffensive, harmless or at least no more dangerous than alcohol and tobacco use [1,2,3,4,5]
A causal, progressive pathway is suggested by the gateway model, whereas the common liability model posits a mechanism of shared genes and shared environment that accounts for cannabis and other licit and illicit drug use together [10,11]
Regular cannabis use is associated with early onset that co-occurs with heavy licit and () hard drug usage [18,19,20]

Summary

Introduction

Experts have repeatedly seen cannabis use as being relatively inoffensive, harmless or at least no more dangerous than alcohol and tobacco use [1,2,3,4,5]. A causal, progressive pathway is suggested by the gateway model, whereas the common liability model posits a mechanism of shared genes and shared environment that accounts for cannabis and other licit and illicit drug use together [10,11]. This latter theory involves the existence of ageneral syndrome of deviance‘ [12] or aproblem behaviour syndrome‘ [13], which may be related to general behavioural disinhibition [14,15] and related personality traits such as novelty-seeking [16,17], often appearing as a marker for early onset substance use and abuse. The existence of poly-substance use among adolescent and young adult cannabis users needs consideration independent of whether any progression to harder drugs is evident

Methods

Results

Conclusion