Media Release
From: New Zealand Medical Association (NZMA)Key points
What is already known:
- The prevalence of lifetime cannabis use in secondary school students fell from 38% in 2001 to 23% in 2012 in New Zealand
- Smoking and binge drinking also declined in this age group over the 2001-12 period.
What this paper adds:
- The decline in cannabis use occurred across all demographic groups over the 2001-2012 period
- Declines were particularly strong in Māori, students from low decile schools, and younger students
- Use of other psychoactive substances also declined over the 2001-2012, so the decline in cannabis use cannot be explained by young people using other substances instead.
- International evidence suggests that adolescent cannabis trends are substantially influenced by tobacco and alcohol trends, and opportunities for substance use in general.
Summary
The Youth 2000 surveys (conducted in 2001, 2007 and 2012) showed that cannabis use declined in New Zealand secondary students between 2001 and 2012. This study, which is part of a doctoral project investigating the decline in adolescent risk behaviours, investigated i) whether changes in adolescent cannabis use occurred across all demographic groups, and ii) whether declining cannabis use was accompanied by increasing use of other psychoactive drugs. These questions were investigated via secondary analysis of the Youth 2000 data (2001, 2007 and 2012), which is nationally representative. We found that the decline in adolescent cannabis use between 2001 and 2012 occurred across all main demographic groups and was not accompanied by a rise in the use of other psychoactive drugs. Ethnic and socioeconomic difference in adolescent cannabis use decreased over the study period. Note that (as far as we are aware) the data from the Youth ’12 survey is the most recent published data on adolescent cannabis use in New Zealand.
