NCJ Number
202817
Journal
Addiction Volume: 98 Issue: 10 Dated: October 2003 Pages: 1379-1386
Editor(s)
Griffth Edwards
Date Published
October 2003
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This paper reports on data from the Cigar Use Reasons Evaluation (CURE) clarifying several key issues regarding youth blunt use and its relationship to the use of cigars as a drug delivery device.
Abstract
Recently, in the United States, public health officials have become increasingly aware of young people smoking cigars in surprising numbers, as well as those working in the substance abuse field who have become aware of the phenomenon of blunting which is using hollowed-out cigars as containers for marijuana. The need has been seen for researchers to study the use of blunts, the relationship of blunt use to cigar smoking, and the characteristics of blunt users. This study reports on the data from the Cigar Use Reasons Evaluation (CURE), a survey of middle and high school students investigating youth use of alternative tobacco products to investigate: (1) the rates of blunt use in the sample; (2) the overlap between blunt and cigar use; (3) the characteristics of blunt users; (4) the cigar brands used by youth for constructing blunts; and (5) the extent to which, drugs in addition to nicotine and marijuana are being added to blunts by youth. The study consisted of 5,016 students in 7th through 12th grade, from 12 schools in Massachusetts that participated in the CURE study in 2001. The analyses used descriptive statistics. The study provides strong evidence that self-reported youth cigar use is real and that many youth do make a distinction between use of cigars and use of blunts. Overall, the rate of life-time blunt use in the sample was 20 percent while the rate of current use was 9.7 percent. Rates were higher among males than females and among high school students than middle school students. Results on cigar brand use showed that one brand, Phillies, was preferred overwhelmingly for making blunts among blunt users. The common use of cigars as drug delivery devices for marijuana and other drugs, in addition to the traditional nicotine, indicates that control of cigars and blunts will require cooperation of various government and private sector systems. References