Association between the use of Cannabis and elevated suicide risk in high school adolescents from Santa Marta, Colombia

Introduction: The use of Cannabis continues to increase worldwide, especially among adolescents. This use overlaps with cigarette smoking and other illicit and licit drugs and s associated with depressive symptoms and suicide risk. In our national context, little is known about the relationship between Cannabis use and suicide risk. Objective: To evaluate the association between Cannabis use and elevated suicide risk in high school adolescents in Santa Marta, Colombia. Materials and methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study with a probabilistic sample of high school students between 13 and 17 years of age from official and private schools. We analyzed the use of Cannabis some time in life and suicide risk was quantified using the suicide ideation scale designed by the Center for Epidemiological Studies on Depression. Scores greater than eight were categorized as a high suicide risk. The crude and adjusted opportunity ratio (OR) was estimated. Results: A total of 1,462 students participated. Their mean age was 14.4 years (SD=0.8) and 60.3% were women. The lifetime prevalence of Cannabis use was 11.6% (95%CI: 10.0-13.2) and 13.3% of the students reported high suicide risk (95%CI: 11.6-15.0). Cannabis consumption was associated with high suicide risk adjusted by other variables (OR=1.88; 95%CI: 1.23-2.88). Conclusions: Cannabis use was associated with high suicide risk in high school adolescents in Santa Marta, Colombia. Other variables should be studied in order to further examine this association.