Introduction:

Marijuana is conceived as a low-risk drug, considered illegal in Colombia, and the most consumed by adolescents.

Objective:

To describe the prevalence and examine the factors associated with marijuana use during the last 30 days by adolescents in school in Colombia.

Method:

Cross-sectional analytical study. Sample is 80,018 adolescents in school between 12 and 18 years of age. An “adolescent user of marijuana” is one who declared having used it during the last thirty days. Variables of interest were considered: sex, age, type of school, episodes of suicidal ideation and deliberate self-harm, the existence of academic and disciplinary performance problems. A description of the prevalence of marijuana was made for each of the variables of interest. Associations were estimated using generalized linear models, all analyzes were adjusted for the expansion factor.

Results:

The prevalence of marijuana use in the last 30 days was 4.3% (95% CI 4.1%-4.6%). The highest prevalence of consumption was recorded in adolescents who had reported 3 or more times of suicidal ideation in the last 12 months, and in those who accused 3 or more times of deliberate self-harm in the last 12 months (10.4% and 10. 0%, respectively). An association was found with all the variables studied.

Conclusions:

A strong association was found between marijuana use and the presence of episodes of deliberate self-harm and episodes of suicidal ideation in school adolescents.

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