Marijuana practices and patterns of use among young adult medical marijuana patients and non-patient marijuana users

•Non-patient marijuana users (NPU) report using marijuana diverted from dispensaries.•Young adult medical marijuana patients (MMP) use more marijuana than young NPU.•Over half of sample report current use of concentrates, e.g., oil, dab, wax.•Vaporization of concentrates and marijuana was more common among MMP than NPU.•Trend toward less current misuse of prescription drugs among MMP compared to NPU.

BackgroundLittle is known about young adult medical marijuana patients (MMP) and their marijuana using patterns and practices, which includes frequency of use, sourcing of marijuana products, forms/modes of administration, and patterns of illicit/prescription drug misuse, compared to non-patient marijuana users (NPU).MethodsYoung adults (N = 366) aged 18-26 years old were sampled in Los Angeles in 2014-15 and segmented into NPU (n = 156), marijuana users who never had a medical marijuana (MM) recommendation, and MMP (n = 210), marijuana users with a current, verified MM recommendation. Differences regarding self-reported marijuana and other drug use during the past 90 days are expressed as unadjusted risk ratios or differences in means.ResultsMMP reported significantly greater mean days of use (76.4 vs. 59.2, p < 0.001) and mean dollars spent on marijuana products (564.5 vs. 266.9, p < 0.001) than NPU. Approximately one-quarter (22.6%) of both MMP and NPU report selling marijuana obtained from a dispensary to someone else in the past 90 days. MMP were more likely to report vaporization modalities for concentrates (URR = 1.5, 95% C.I. = 1.2, 2.0) and for marijuana (URR = 1.5, 95% C.I. = 1.1, 2.1) than NPU. Though not significant, trends toward lower misuse of prescription drugs in the past 90 days were observed among MMP compared to NPU.ConclusionMMP reported greater access to marijuana via dispensaries, more frequent and intensive use of marijuana, and greater use of non-combustible forms of marijuana compared to NPU. MMP reported less recent misuse of prescription drugs compared to NPU.