(Press-News.org) BUFFALO, N.Y. – The cannabis marketplace continues to grow and evolve, offering consumers new ways to use cannabis — and new ways to combine it with other substances, such as alcohol. That practice can be particularly detrimental to adolescents, who are known to use both substances in high numbers.
And when it comes to cannabis use and binge drinking among high school seniors, modality matters, according to new research from the University at Buffalo finding that differing modes of cannabis consumption may be associated with risky alcohol use behaviors in this population.
The study is among the first to evaluate modes of cannabis use on binge drinking outcomes among U.S. 12th graders. Researchers sought to first assess modes of cannabis administration among 12th grade students. The next objective was to understand the association between different methods of cannabis use, such as smoking, vaping or consuming via edibles, and multi-modal cannabis use — the use of two or more cannabis products — with binge drinking outcomes over the previous two weeks.
Published last month in Substance Use & Misuse, the study leveraged 2018-2021 data from a nationally representative sample of high school seniors who completed surveys as part of Monitoring the Future, an ongoing study of the behaviors, attitudes and values of Americans from adolescence through adulthood.
It’s not just the ways cannabis can be consumed that’s increasing, largely due to the greater availability of vaped and edible cannabis products. The use of two or more cannabis products among U.S. 12th graders is also on the rise.
“Different ways of using cannabis matters. Students who smoke, vape or dab cannabis are more likely to binge drink compared to those who don’t use or use other modes of cannabis,” says study first author Michelle Goulette, who obtained her PhD in community health and health behavior from UB’s School of Public Health and Health Professions this fall.
“Additionally, using more than one mode increases the risk of binge drinking. Students who use at least two or more modes of cannabis administration are at an increased risk for engaging in recent binge drinking,” adds Goulette, who conducted the research during her PhD program.
Goulette wanted to study cannabis use risks following New York State’s legalization of recreational cannabis in 2021.
“I wanted to study the risks associated with use as they are often overlooked. People may not know that there are different levels of risk associated with cannabis use depending on the way that it is administered,” she says.
Among survey participants, nearly 31% reported using cannabis within the previous year. At 87%, smoking was the most reported method of cannabis use, followed by edible consumption (49%) and vaping (45%). In addition, the majority of cannabis users, or 65%, reported multi-modal cannabis use, which means they used at least two or more different ways of consuming cannabis.
Smoking, vaping and dabbing — the process of vaporizing highly potent cannabis concentrates at extremely high temperatures — all were associated with any past two-week binge drinking occurrence.
“What surprised me was that edible forms of cannabis were not associated with binge drinking,” Goulette says. “I initially thought that drinkable cannabis products might be linked to the higher use of alcohol. I was surprised when it was only associated with combustible modes of cannabis. This could be from the high levels of THC that are often found within these drinkable products, but I can’t say for certain as I did not assess THC levels.”
Advertising might provide one explanation for the increase in the prevalence of cannabis product use. Goulette and her colleagues cited previous research that found that cannabis advertisement exposure was highest among U.S. adolescents compared to any other age group.
The researchers conclude that cannabis use methods need to be evaluated more frequently among adolescents to better understand the risks associated with different cannabis products and that tighter regulation should be considered if certain products are found to have more risks compared to others.
“We know that new forms of cannabis enter the market every day and vary between states due to cannabis legislation. If certain modes of cannabis are associated with an increased risk of binge drinking in adolescents, we should educate adolescents on what those modes are,” Goulette says. “There are both benefits and risks to cannabis use, and providing clear education about these distinctions can help guide adolescents toward safer choices.”
Co-authors on the paper are Alison Haney, PhD, assistant professor; Gregory Homish, PhD, chair and professor; and Jessica Kulak, PhD, clinical associate professor, all of the UB Department of Community Health and Health Behavior.
END
Study finds increase in risk of binge drinking among 12th graders who use 2 or more cannabis products
2025-12-10
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
New paper-based technology could transform cancer drug testing
2025-12-10
Researchers at New York University Abu Dhabi (NYUAD) have developed Spheromatrix, a simple and low-cost technology that enables tumor models to be grown, frozen, and stored for future use in cancer drug testing.
Spheromatrix is made from specially engineered filter paper patterned to support the growth of tumor spheroids in a controlled, reproducible manner. Unlike conventional approaches, which are expensive, complex, and cannot be preserved, this platform enables researchers to build biobanks of ...
Opioids: clarifying the concept of safe supply to save lives
2025-12-10
Canadian researchers want to clarify the concepts related to safe opioid supply to better assess their impact and guide public-health policies.
In Canada, thousands of people use contaminated street opioids. To reduce overdoses, the country has been experimenting for the past 10 years with the distribution of pharmaceutical opioids as an alternative to illicit drugs.
This method is often referred to as “safe supply” or “safer supply.”
What exactly do these terms, which emerged in the late 2010s and are central to Canadian harm reduction policies, mean?
In a study published in the International Journal of Drug Policy, ...
New species of tiny pumpkin toadlet discovered in Brazil highlights need for conservation in the mountain forests of Serra do Quiriri
2025-12-10
New species of tiny pumpkin toadlet discovered in Brazil highlights need for conservation in the mountain forests of Serra do Quiriri
Article URL: https://plos.io/48orUxO
Article title: A new species of Brachycephalus (Anura: Brachycephalidae) from Serra do Quiriri, northeastern Santa Catarina state, southern Brazil, with a review of the diagnosis among species of the B. pernix group and proposed conservation measures
Author countries: Brazil, U.S., Germany
Funding: The field work was funded by Fundação ...
Reciprocity matters--people were more supportive of climate policies in their country if they believed other countries were making significant efforts themselves
2025-12-10
Reciprocity matters--people were more supportive of climate policies in their country if they believed other countries were making significant efforts themselves, per survey of 4,000 Chinese, Indian, Japanese and US citizens.
Article URL: https://plos.io/4pfhbgj
Article Title: They reduce, we reduce: Perception of other countries’ climate effort predicts support for climate policies
Author Countries: China, Japan, Sweden
Funding: The work described in this study was supported by grants awarded to Kim-Pong Tam from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. 16601122 ...
Stanford Medicine study shows why mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines can cause myocarditis
2025-12-10
Stanford Medicine investigators have unearthed the biological process by which mRNA-based vaccines for COVID-19 can cause heart damage in some young men and adolescents — and they’ve shown a possible route to reducing its likelihood.
Using advanced but now common lab technologies, along with published data from vaccinated individuals, the researchers identified a two-step sequence in which these vaccines activate a certain type of immune cell, in turn riling up another type of immune cell. The resulting inflammatory activity directly injures heart muscle cells, while triggering further ...
Biobanking opens new windows into human evolution
2025-12-10
Nijmegen, 10 December 2025 - More than a decade after the first Neanderthal genome was sequenced, scientists are still working to understand how human-specific DNA changes shaped our evolution. A new study by the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, published in Science Advances, offers an innovative approach: by scanning DNA of hundreds of thousands of people in a population biobank, researchers can identify individuals who carry the very rare archaic versions of these genetic changes, making it possible to directly observe their real-world effects in living humans.
It’s just over a decade since scientists first reported successfully sequencing the virtually ...
Sky-high smoke
2025-12-10
Key takeaways
Harvard atmospheric scientists directly sampled 5-day old wildfire smoke in the upper troposphere and found large particles that are not reflected in current climate models.
The large particles had a measurable cooling effect, with potential implications for future climate predictions
Some wildfires are so intense, they create their own weather – thunderstorms driven by heat that hurtle smoke as high as 10 miles into the sky like giant chimneys.
When these smoke plumes reach the thin, calm air of the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere, they can persist for weeks or even months – yet their ...
AI tips off scientists to new drug target to fight, treat mpox
2025-12-10
With the help of artificial intelligence, an international team of researchers has made the first major inroad to date towards a new and more effective way to fight the monkeypox virus (MPXV), which causes a painful and sometimes deadly disease that can be especially dangerous for children, pregnant women and immunocompromised people. Reporting in the journal Science Translational Medicine, the team found that when mice were injected with a viral surface protein recommended by AI, the animals produced antibodies that neutralized MPXV, suggesting the breakthrough could be used in a new mpox vaccine or antibody ...
USC researchers develop next-generation CAR T cells that show stronger, safer response in animal models
2025-12-10
Researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of USC have developed a new type of chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cell that elicits a more controlled immune response to cancer in mice—effectively killing cancer cells, including those that typically escape detection, with fewer toxic side effects. The engineered CAR T cells may someday offer a way to more safely treat blood cancers and reduce the chance of relapse. The results were just published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.
CAR T cell therapy ...
New study reveals Industrial Revolution’s uneven health impacts across England
2025-12-10
New Study Reveals Industrial Revolution’s Uneven Health Impacts Across England
Bone chemistry uncovers hidden stories of pollution, gender, and life in industrializing Britain
An interdisciplinary team of scientists has uncovered new evidence showing that the health impacts of the Industrial Revolution varied more widely across England than previously believed. The findings, published in the journal Science Advances, challenge the longstanding narrative that industrial cities were uniformly polluted while rural communities remained comparatively untouched ...