While the use of tobacco has steadily declined over the past two decades, marijuana has not followed this same trend, and as public attitudes shift and legalization expands, its influence on other behaviors becomes harder to ignore. Recent research reveals that marijuana use may be contributing to a rise in tobacco initiation among adolescents and young adults, with an even higher risk for those who had a history with tobacco products.
Analyzing national representative data, researchers discovered that among youth 12-17 who reported marijuana use in 2017, about 1 in 3 became regular tobacco users by 2021, representing a 15.6%-point increase compared to those who did not use marijuana. This highlights that teenagers who used marijuana were nearly twice as likely to transition to smoking tobacco. Although among young adults 18-24 years the threat was lower, researchers still found that about 1 in 7 marijuana users became regular tobacco users.
Further analysis showed that an estimated 13% of new regular tobacco users can be attributed to previous marijuana use. This translates to over half a million young people who likely would not have progressed to tobacco use if marijuana had not been a contributing factor.
In addition, young adults and youth who used marijuana had a 30-40% higher risk of becoming regular tobacco users while the risk for youth who had a history of both tobacco and marijuana went up to 70%.
Although marijuana use does not automatically lead to tobacco use, it does seem to create the conditions and a possible path to regular use by making it more appealing to be integrated into a young person’s routine and shared social environments.
Public health efforts have been fighting nicotine use for decades, yet this research suggests that marijuana use may be serving as a steppingstone toward nicotine initiation. As marijuana availability expands and its harms are ignored by false marketing, risk perceptions appear to shift giving individuals a false sense of security when experimenting with substances, despite clear evidence of associated dangers.
Source:
Chen, J., Messer, K., Pierce, J. P., Strong, D. R., Quach, N. E., Shi, Y., McMenamin, S. B., Khin, T. N. M., Stone, M. D., & Trinidad, D. R. (2025). Cannabis use and progression to regular tobacco use among United States youth and young adults: Evidence from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study, 2017–2021. Tobacco Control. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1136/tc-2025-059634
