Alcohol, cannabis, and social media among young people

Following the definitions of the meaning of substance use and the need for preventive measures, the conference concentrated on adolescents in the Nordic countries. Several research reports were presented on alcohol and cannabis.

Inger Synnøve Moan, Norwegian Institute of Public Health: Alcohol use among youth in the Nordic countries: Changes, explanations, and consequences

During the last 20 years, there has been a significant decline in young people’s alcohol use in the Nordic countries. This trend has not yet been fully explained. Inger Synnøve Moan, senior researcher at the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco and Drugs at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health introduced a recent research project on possible explanations for the decline in youth drinking.

The project aims to provide novel insights into the reasons for, and the implications of, the decline in adolescent drinking. Before the start of this research project, a number of possible explanations for the decline had already been offered: changes in parental control, leisure time activities, risk perception, and availability of alcohol.

– The main gap in the literature pertains to the underlying driving forces of the decline. Also, there were few empirical studies on the consequences of the decline.

Heavy episodic drinking (HED) is defined as drinking more than five drinks on one occasion. Between 1999 and 2015 the decline in HED among adolescents in Finland, Norway, and Sweden was significantly associated with a decline in youth daily smoking, perceived access to alcohol, and increased parental control. Engaging in sports or hobbies had little or no impact.

The role of parenting was also underlined in another study, comparing Swedish and Danish data. Restrictive parental attitudes were associated with a lower likelihood of past-year drinking and frequent drinking among youth in both Sweden and Denmark.

Another finding was that when adolescents grow up, their drinking patterns do not differ much compared to earlier age cohorts. Birth cohorts whose levels of alcohol consumption are substantially different in mid-adolescence have only slightly different drinking behaviour in young adulthood.

– Young adults drink as they used to do. However, we found that the youngest cohort, in their early twenties, had fewer drinks per occasion than did older cohorts.

”Young adults drink as they used to do. However, we found that the youngest cohort, in their early twenties, had fewer drinks per occasion than did older cohorts.”

While alcohol is still a much larger problem among adolescents than cannabis, there is a growing need for new and comprehensive knowledge to design effective prevention programmes targeting cannabis use.

Anne Line Bretteville-Jensen, senior researcher at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health, presented the main findings from a recent web-based school survey called Cann2021 in Norway. The study focused on adolescents’ experiences, knowledge, and attitudes towards cannabis.

– There are a lot of new products, new intake modes, lower prices, and higher THC content. In order to adapt the prevention strategies to these changes, we need to know more about what the youth actually know. This is particularly important as young people seem to be at greater risk for the negative consequences of drug use.

The study confirmed that cannabis use is still low compared to alcohol use: 20 per cent of the respondents had used cannabis at least once in their lifetime and 6 per cent during the last four weeks. Health, parents, and legal status seemed important for the non-use of cannabis, or not using more. Only a fraction of the participants were in favour of legal changes.

While cannabis resin and marihuana remain the most common products, less traditional ways of consuming cannabis were found to be more common than the researchers anticipated.

– 30 per cent of the users had reportedly eaten or drunk THC products, 23 per cent had used vaporisers with THC content and 8 per cent had used synthetic cannabinoids, Bretteville-Jensen says.

Among the main findings in the study, the researchers also noted that the adolescents had limited knowledge about cannabis. When presented with a list of statements about cannabis, many respondents did not know the facts.

– To us at least there were surprisingly many “don’t know” answers. Two out of three did not know that THC levels in cannabis products had almost tripled in recent years. The respondents also both exaggerated and understated the potential harms of cannabis use.

”Two out of three did not know that THC levels in cannabis products had almost tripled in recent years.”

It was also surprising, says Anne Line Bretteville-Jensen, that many respondents stated that they had never received any information on cannabis. Among those, about half of the respondents, who had received or sought information, many had used non-quality-assured information sources, such as social media.

– This seems to be a knowledge gap waiting to be filled.

The final presentation focusing explicitly on young people was presented by Sara Kristensson, communications manager at the Swedish Council for Information on Alcohol and Other Drugs (CAN). The report Ungas tillgång till alkohol via sociala medier 2021 [Adolescents’ access to alcohol via social media] was commissioned by the Swedish alcohol monopoly System­bolaget and was published in 2021.

– All knowledge on social media has a very short shelf-life, Sara Kristensson says.

Among the respondents, aged 16–21, 12 per cent said that they had bought alcohol on social media at least once, and 5 per cent had bought alcohol on social media in the last year. Instagram and Snapchat seem to be the most common social media platforms for selling alcohol.

– There is a phenomenon in Sweden called “hink-konto”, which refers to a social media account that sells alcohol. The results show that offers to buy alcohol were much more common in the social media feeds of young people who had drunk alcohol, compared to those who had not tried alcohol, says Kristensson.

”The results show that offers to buy alcohol were much more common in the social media feeds of young people who had drunk alcohol, compared to those who had not tried alcohol.”

The research also looked at different regions in Sweden. Buying alcohol on social media is much more common in the big cities, or cities close to big cities, compared to the rest of the country.

– Thanks to our research, project cooperation has been established between the Swedish alcohol monopoly and different social media platforms. It is in the interest of both parties to stop the selling of alcohol through social media, Kristensson concludes.