Understanding the antecedents and outcomes of frequent adolescent cannabis use

Cannabis is increasingly available as a legal drug around the world, and we can expect use among adolescents to increase. Frequent cannabis use at a young age increases the likelihood of health problems in adulthood, including depression and anxiety.

I will use interview data collected at multiple times in participants’ lives, from childhood onwards to understand what causes frequent use of cannabis in adolescence and what the relationship is between cannabis use in adolescence and mental health in adulthood.

This project explores the extent to which stress in early life can cause frequent cannabis use in adolescence, and how much this relationship is due to the behaviour and mental health of frequent users. I will consider the relationship between frequent cannabis use in adolescence with depression and anxiety, exploring the extent to which an association between these is due to low employment, drug use and heavy alcohol use after adolescence.