Elsevier

Drug and Alcohol Dependence

Volume 165, 1 August 2016, Pages 181-190
Drug and Alcohol Dependence

Full length article
Trends in cannabis use disorders among racial/ethnic population groups in the United States

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2016.06.002Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • Across racial/ethnic groups, cannabis dependence was more common than cannabis abuse.

  • Three minority groups had greater odds than whites of having cannabis dependence.

  • Three minority groups also had greater odds than whites of using cannabis weekly.

  • Adjusted analyses showed an increased trend in weekly cannabis use.

  • Low education was associated with elevated odds of cannabis dependence.

Abstract

Background

Minority groups generally experience more disparities than whites in behavioral healthcare use. The population of racial/ethnic groups is growing faster than whites. Given increased concerns of cannabis use (CU) and its associations with health conditions, we examined national trends in cannabis use disorder (CUD) among adults aged ≥18 by race/ethnicity.

Methods

Data were from the 2005–2013 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health (N = 340,456). We compared CU patterns and the conditional prevalence of CUD among cannabis users by race/ethnicity to understand racial/ethnic variations in CUD.

Results

Approximately 1.5% of adults met criteria for a CUD in the past year. Regardless of survey year, cannabis dependence was more common than cannabis abuse, representing 66% of adults with a CUD. Across racial/ethnic groups, the prevalence of cannabis abuse and dependence remained stable during 2005–2013. In the total adult sample, the odds of weekly CU, monthly CU, and cannabis dependence were greater among blacks, native-Americans, and mixed-race adults than whites. Among cannabis users, the odds of cannabis abuse and dependence were greater among blacks, native-Americans, and Hispanics than whites. Logistic regression controlling for age, sex, education, and survey year indicated an increased trend in monthly CU and weekly CU in the total sample and among past-year cannabis users. Younger age, male sex, and low education were associated with increased odds of cannabis dependence.

Conclusions

The large sample provides robust information that indicates a need for research to monitor CUD and identify culturally appropriate interventions especially for targeting minority populations.

Keywords

Asian American
Black
Cannabis use disorder
Hispanic
Mixed race
Native American

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