cannabis
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Regardless of legal guidelines towards promoting hashish to teenagers, younger individuals reported in surveys that they nonetheless see quite a lot of constructive hashish messages by social media posts.

Washington State College researchers discovered these messages have been additionally related to the teenagers’ intentions to make use of hashish, and for school college students, with their precise use. Anti-cannabis messages additionally had an impact in lessening use-intentions, however younger individuals noticed much less of these sorts of messages.

“Youth, particularly, have actually grown up bombarded with hashish info in comparison with earlier generations,” mentioned Jessica Willoughby, first creator on the examine revealed within the journal Well being Communication and an affiliate professor in WSU’s Murrow School of Communication. “We discovered that they have been seeing extra constructive messages about utilizing hashish and rather a lot much less concerning the dangers.”

For this examine, the researchers surveyed 350 teenagers and 966 school college students from throughout Washington state, the place leisure marijuana has been authorized since 2012.

The state does have laws aimed toward stopping promoting hashish to minors, corresponding to prohibiting using cartoons or youth-oriented celebrities. This doesn’t stop people from posting about hashish on social media, nevertheless.

Of the examine contributors, the overwhelming majority, over 80%, reported seeing pro-cannabis messages on social media, corresponding to posts about being excessive or claims that marijuana is innocent. The professional-cannabis messages most frequently encountered have been these from celebrities or lyrics in songs.

“Dad and mom won’t perceive that if their child is utilizing a social media website—whether or not it is Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, Fb or Snapchat —they’re going to see hashish messages. That is simply the fact,” mentioned co-author Stacey Hust, a professor at WSU’s Murrow School of Communication. “This implies we have to be getting coaching into faculties at a lot youthful ages. On the very least center faculty and highschool well being courses want to speak about hashish and the way it may be dangerous to the growing mind.”

The examine contributors additionally reported seeing some anti-cannabis messages, corresponding to that hashish may cause hurt or that smoking it’s gross or for losers, however they noticed all these messages much less usually than pro-cannabis ones.

The youth, each teenagers and school college students, who reported seeing increased ranges of constructive messages have been extra more likely to point out an intention to make use of hashish. The school college students have been additionally requested about precise use and there was a constructive connection between publicity to pro-cannabis posts and use for that group.

The excellent news is that seeing the anti-cannabis messages had some impact, though not directly. Among the many youth who already held beliefs that hashish use might trigger unfavorable outcomes, corresponding to damaging their mind or doing worse in class, seeing anti-cannabis messages appeared to decrease their intentions to make use of.

The researchers mentioned this discovering signifies a very good space for folks and counselors to focus on.

“Prevention efforts can have an effect,” mentioned Willoughby. “Since youth are seeing extra of that constructive hashish content material, it is worthwhile to place out extra content material highlighting the dangers, particularly to the younger individuals like them.”

Extra info:
Jessica Fitts Willoughby et al, Publicity to Professional and Anti-Hashish Social Media Messages and Teenagers’ and School College students’ Intentions to Use Hashish, Well being Communication (2023). DOI: 10.1080/10410236.2022.2162707

Quotation:
Professional-cannabis social media linked to youths’ intentions to make use of (2023, February 1)
retrieved 1 February 2023
from https://medicalxpress.com/information/2023-02-pro-cannabis-social-media-linked-youths.html

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