The prevalence of cannabis use in an Australlian tertiary student population

Abstract

This study investigated the prevalence of cannabis use among a sample of 448 South Australian tertiary students. Participants completed a self‐report questionnaire assessing their history of cannabis use to determine frequency and duration of use. It was found that while 36.4% of the respondents had never used cannabis, 11.4% of the sample reported using cannabis on a weekly basis, while 7.1% were classified as regular long‐term cannabis users, which was more common among males. Compared to samples of the general Australian population and the general adolescent population, tertiary students exhibited a higher prevalence of cannabis use. Given the potential problems of regular long‐term cannabis use, it is suggested that it is important to further investigate the effects of cannabis use in this population and ways of reducing the prevalence of regular long‐term cannabis use.