Associations Between E-Cigarettes and Subsequent Cocaine Use in Adolescence: An Analysis of the UK Millennium Cohort Study.

In this large-scale prospective cohort study (n=5,207), youth who had used e-cigarettes by age 14 were matched to nicotine naïve youth on childhood common liability confounders and demographics measured from infancy to age 11 (e.g., school engagement, thrill-seeking behavior, delinquency, peer and parental smoking, parental educational attainment). After matching, 7.6% of age 14 e-cigarette users had subsequently used cocaine by age 17 versus 3.1% of non-e-cigarette users. Although e-cigarettes are promoted as a strategy for nicotine-dependent users to reduce harms of combustible cigarettes, evidence here suggests that for nicotine-naïve youth, they may increase the risk of subsequent cocaine use.