Given the potential role that cannabis plays in
supporting and sustaining smoking behaviour in
some young people, it is important both to re-assess
how smoking cessation services are currently delivered
to young people, and to develop further our
understanding of the nature and extent of the relationship
between young people’s cannabis and
tobacco use. This is not without its challenges. It will
require researchers and practitioners from smoking
cessation and drugs education breaking with tradition
and finding ways of working together. It may
also involve addressing politically sensitive issues,
e.g. developing ‘harm reduction’ approaches to
cannabis which do not involve smoking tobacco.
Nonetheless, if cannabis is a potential barrier to
some young people quitting smoking, it is incumbent
upon health planners and practitioners to
address this. At a very practical level, and as a first
step, this requires smoking cessation workers to
discuss cannabis use with their young clients in order
to assess its likely impact on their efforts to quit
smoking.