Displays of dabbing marijuana extracts on YouTube
Introduction
Dabbing is a way of ingesting marijuana that involves heating concentrated forms of marijuana (called marijuana extracts) to high temperatures, and inhaling the resulting vapor. These extracts, also referred to as wax, shatter, or oil, are usually created through extracting resins from marijuana plants with liquid butane, then evaporating the butane (Mehmedic et al., 2010). This process leaves behind a substance containing high concentrations of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the psychoactive (mind-altering) ingredient in marijuana. Thus, only a small amount is needed to reach the desired “high”. A “dab” refers to a dose of the extract that is heated using a torch on a hot surface, usually a “nail”, allowing the users to then inhale the vapor. Informal reports suggest that these extracts conservatively have THC concentrations of 20–25%, but can reach THC concentrations upwards of 80% (Mehmedic et al., 2010). In contrast, the THC content via traditional marijuana consumption (i.e., smoking the dried flowers/leaves) is substantially lower at around 10% (Mehmedic et al., 2010). Thus, dabbing could be a preferred method among medical marijuana patients who want an immediate effect without smoking buds/plant-based material or among recreational users who seek an intense and/or immediate high.
Marijuana use among youth and young adults has remained steady in recent years, with 19% of young adults aged 18–25 and 7% of youth aged 12–17 reporting current marijuana use in 2013 (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA], 2014). However, current national surveys do not capture prevalence of use of marijuana extracts. Media outlets suggest that dabbing has recently increased in popularity (Black, 2014, Mosko and Miller, 2014). Accordingly, searches for “dabbing” on Google have increased substantially since 2013 (Google Trends, 2015). Yet, only two known scientific papers have examined dabbing. Murphy et al. (2015) reported that some cannabis users from the Baby Boom generation were exploring the use of cannabis extracts as a replacement or supplement to smoking marijuana. Loflin and Earleywine (2014) found that although many users reported dabbing for medicinal purposes, more than half of the participants who used dabs did not identify as “medicinal users”. The authors also found that dabbing was associated with higher rates of both marijuana tolerance and withdrawal, suggesting that dabbing may increase the risk for dependence (Loflin and Earleywine, 2014). Such findings stress potential risks associated with dabbing, but the scant research precludes any definitive conclusions.
Social media use is common, especially among young people. In fact, most young adults aged 18–29 (89%) in the U.S. have profiles on at least one social media platform (Duggan et al., 2015). Young people often communicate about their marijuana use on social media sites, or “follow” accounts that promote marijuana use (Cavazos-Rehg et al., 2014, Cavazos-Rehg et al., 2015, Morgan et al., 2010). Such networking on social media that promotes substance use could impact the norms and behaviors of young people. For example, exposure to pictures of friends drinking on social media has been positively associated with alcohol use and pro-alcohol attitudes (Litt and Stock, 2011).
With over one billion registered users worldwide, YouTube is the most popular online video community (YouTube, 2015c). YouTube is free to use; registered users can upload videos, and anyone, regardless of having a YouTube account, can search videos related to their topic of interest. A large proportion of users are young, with 31% between the ages of 16 and 24 years (Mander, 2014). Recent reports show that YouTube reaches more 18–34 year olds than any single cable TV network, and is rated as the top place to watch content among millennials (Guimaraes, 2014). Researchers have begun to study risky health behaviors portrayed on YouTube. Much of the substance use research using YouTube videos has focused on the messages shown in tobacco-related videos (Carroll et al., 2013, Elkin et al., 2010, Forsyth and Malone, 2010, Freeman and Chapman, 2007). For example, there is more pro-tobacco than anti-tobacco content in smoking-related YouTube videos, and indirect tobacco advertising is included in smoking-related videos (Elkin et al., 2010, Forsyth and Malone, 2010, Freeman and Chapman, 2007). In a comparison of cigarette versus hookah videos, hookah videos were more likely to portray tobacco use positively and less likely to mention negative consequences (Carroll et al., 2013). YouTube has also been used to study the effects of salvia, a hallucinogen that was gaining popularity in young people but had little prior documentation (Lange et al., 2010, Paterline and Albo, 2013). A more recent study reported that YouTube videos about alcohol intoxication were viewed often, but rarely depicted negative consequences (Primack et al., 2015).
Given that YouTube is the most popular platform for online video sharing and dabbing is a new trend in marijuana use, we expect that YouTube will be the go-to resource for individuals interested in learning more. YouTube videos are easily accessible and potentially far-reaching, and because of this it is important to understand the types of messages being shared. This exploratory study takes the first step in examining the dabbing-related content on this platform, and adds to the limited research on this topic to date.
Section snippets
Sampling and data collection
We conducted an initial YouTube search on January 22, 2015 to find videos related to dabbing using the search terms “dabbing” and “dabs”. For each search term we used two different sorting methods to find the videos: (1) relevance, the default search method which captures videos most relevant to the search query as determined by YouTube's internal algorithm; and (2) view count, which captures the most commonly viewed videos. For each search term and sorting method, we recorded the first 40
Video characteristics (Table 1)
Among the 130 videos, 14 were excluded because they were not about dabbing marijuana (10), not in English (1), or were unavailable for viewing (3). This left 116 videos for analysis. On January 22, 2015 the 116 dabbing-related videos had a median of 26,852 views, and a total of 9,545,482 views across all videos. Between January 22 and March 22, the videos had a median of 3027 new views (range 47–132,466); the new total across all videos was 9,761,644 views. Median length of the videos was 5.6
Discussion
We sought to better understand the extent that YouTube is used for viewing videos about dabbing given that it is the most popular online video community. YouTube facilitates an online resource for free and easy access to videos about dabbing. The dabbing videos included in our analyses had a total of nearly 10 million views, and had higher view counts (median near 27,000) than most YouTube videos (53% of YouTube videos have fewer than 500 views) (Frommer and Angelova, 2009). These trends
Contributors
Ms. Krauss led the acquisition of the data, analyses, interpretation of results, and manuscript writing.
Ms. Sowles participated in data analysis and critical revision of the manuscript.
Ms. Mylvaganam participated in data analysis, interpretation of results, and drafting the manuscript.
Ms. Zewdie participated in data analysis, interpretation of results, and drafting the manuscript.
Dr. Bierut contributed to interpretation of results and critical revisions to the manuscript.
Dr. Cavazos-Rehg
Conflict of interest
One of the authors, Dr. Bierut, is listed as an inventor on Issued U.S. Patent 8, 080, 371, “Markers for Addiction,” covering the use of certain SNPs in determining the diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of addiction. All other authors declare they have no conflicts of interest.
Role of funding source
This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health [grant numbers R01 DA039455, R01 DA032843].
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