Study shows higher cannabis use in bisexuals

According to recent studies, there is higher cannabis use in bisexuals and homosexuals than heterosexuals.

A study published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence analyzes differences in the frequency of cannabis consumption by heterosexual, homosexual and bisexual women.

This study is one of the first to study cannabis use among LGBTQs and compare it with heterosexual people.

The survey relies on data from the 2015-2017 drug survey – which includes information from 126,463 people. The researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health divided the survey data by gender and sexual orientation.

Cannabis use amongst gay and bisexual women

While only about 10 percent of heterosexual women surveyed reported using cannabis in the last year, more than 40 percent of bisexual women did the same.

Lesbians do not smoke as much cannabis as bisexual women. However, they still consumed more than twice as much cannabis as heterosexual women by 26 percent.

If you look at the daily use, the percentage of use in all women decreased significantly. But bisexual women still consume the most.

The same applies to the use of cannabis for medical purposes. The study found similar trends among gay people. Bisexual and homosexual men used cannabis almost twice as often in the last year as heterosexual men.

Cannabis use in bisexuals and gay men

“We expanded these results to estimate the incidence of cannabis use every day / almost every day, which was seven times higher among bisexual women than among heterosexual women. Also 2.3 times higher for bisexual men than for heterosexual men,” said Silvia Martins, Associate Professor at Columbia University.

Compared to heterosexual men (17%), cannabis use last year was higher amongst bisexual men (30%) and gay men (29%).

Daily cannabis use amongst men was highest among bisexual men (9%). They were followed by gay men (7%) and heterosexual men (4%).

Last year, medical cannabis use was 2% among heterosexual men, 5% among gay men, and 4% among bisexual men.

Bisexual women are twice as likely to suffer from mental health problems

“Our results support existing literature by showing that bisexual women have higher levels of marijuana use disorders than heterosexual women,” said research author Morgan Philbin, assistant professor of sociomedical sciences in Colombia.

“This is part of the increased health burden because bisexual women are twice as likely to suffer from mental health problems and drug use.”

The authors of the study claim that bisexual women are more likely to suffer from mental health problems and abuse psychoactive substances. Yet cannabis is much less of a threat than, say, prescription drugs or alcohol.

The study also does not include any information on transgender people, who are among the most at risk in the LGBTQ community. Further research on this population could be more helpful in obtaining information about the impact of gender orientation on cannabis use. It is worth remembering. However, people can always lie when they answer questions from a survey.

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(Featured Image by WendyWei)

First published in faktykonopne, a third-party contributor translated and adapted the article from the original. In case of discrepancy, the original will prevail.

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