'Fake Weed' Linked to More Risk-Taking Than Real Marijuana

A bottle of cannabis oil, and leaves. — (Image credit: Creative Family/Shutterstock)

Teens who use "fake weed," or synthetic cannabis, may be more likely to engage in risky behaviors than those who use only marijuana, a new study finds.

High school students in the study who used synthetic cannabinoids had a much greater likelihood of using other drugs and engaging in risky sexual behaviors compared to high school students who had used only marijuana, researchers found.

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For example, the researchers found that students who had used synthetic cannabinoids were more likely to have also used substances like alcohol, heroin and ecstasy than individuals who used marijuana but not synthetic cannabinoids. In addition, those teens who used synthetic cannabinoids were more likely to report having engaged in injury- or violence-related behavior, including physical fights or riding with a driver who had been drinking.

Synthetic cannabinoids are created in a laboratory, rather than derived from a plant, like regular marijuana. These synthetics have similar effects to THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, but can be even more potent than that chemical and can cause side effects. Those may include vomiting, hypertension, hallucinations and even seizures, heart damage, dependence and death, depending on the specific type or mixture used.

In the new study, the researchers looked at data from a survey conducted yearly by the CDC called the Youth Risk Behavior Survey. In 2015, more than 15,000 students in grades 9 through 12 from all over the U.S. took part in the study. The survey asked students to report certain behaviors across four areas: violence, mental health, sexual health and drug use, including whether they had ever used marijuana or synthetic cannabinoids.

The researchers found that 9 percent of students reported having used synthetic cannabinoids at some point. In addition, 30 percent of students reported that they had only ever used marijuana. Most students who reported using synthetic cannabinoids also reported using marijuana, though the reverse was not true; less than a quarter of students who reported using marijuana also reported having used synthetic cannabinoids.

The researchers noted that the survey data asked students to report their own behaviors, which means students could have over- or under-reported certain behaviors. In addition, because of the nature of the survey, researchers did not learn about the timing of the different behaviors. Thus, the scientists could not determine whether synthetic cannabinoid use came before other risky behaviors, for example.