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European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction.

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López-Pelayo, HAuthorMadero, SCorresponding Author

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Synthetic Cannabinoids and Cannabis: How the Patterns of Use Differ: Results from the European Web Survey on Drugs

Publicated to:International Journal Of Mental Health And Addiction. 22 (3): 1128-1144 - 2024-06-01 22(3), DOI: 10.1007/s11469-022-00919-6

Authors: Lopez-Pelayo, Hugo; Madero, Santiago; Gremeaux, Lies; Ronka, Sanna; Matias, Joao

Affiliations

European Monitoring Ctr Drugs & Drug Addict EMCDD, Lisbon, Portugal - Author
Finnish Inst Hlth & Welf THL, Helsinki, Finland - Author
Inst Invest Biomed August Pi & Sunyer IDIBAPS, Barcelona, Spain - Author
Sciensano, Brussels, Belgium - Author
Univ Barcelona, Hosp Clin 1, Clin Inst Neurosci, Dept Psychiat, Barcelona, Spain - Author
Univ Barcelona, Hosp Clin 1, Clin Inst Neurosci, Grp Recerca Addic Clin GRAC GRE,Dept Psychiat, Barcelona, Spain - Author
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Abstract

The aim of the current study is to assess if the patterns of use, socio-demographic characteristics, and use of other drugs differ among people who only use cannabis and those that use synthetic cannabinoids. Data from the second wave of the European Web Survey on Drugs, a web-based cross-sectional survey from 10 different European countries including individuals aged 18 and over (n = 37,109). Participation was anonymous, self-selecting, and voluntary. Cannabinoid exposure was taken as the dependent variable and categorized into the four following variables: (1) neither last year use of cannabis nor of synthetic cannabinoids (SC) independently of lifetime use, (2) cannabis use, (3) synthetic cannabinoids use, and (4) use of both, in the last 12 months. Independent variables included socio-demographic data, other drug use in the last month, and patterns of cannabis use. The use of SC was associated with higher odd of polysubstance use in the last year (OR 2.17; 95%CI 1.27-3.72) and use of other drugs during the last month. Low income (OR 2.34; 95%CI 1.20-4.58) and unemployment (OR 3.02; 95%CI 1.34-6.83) were related to SC use alone and cannabis plus SC use (OR 1.53; 95%CI 1.13-2.05) (OR 4.12; 95%CI 3.45-4.91). Social vulnerabilities were associated with the use of cannabis in the last year, but more markedly with synthetic cannabinoids use. Those who used synthetic cannabinoids reported using other drugs more often than those who used or did not use cannabis. The findings highlight the importance of social vulnerabilities and poly-drug use when assessing the use of new psychoactive substances such as SC and how these differ when compared to cannabis.

Keywords

CannabisEuropean web survey on drugsNew psychoactive substancesSynthetic cannabinoidsZero hunger

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal International Journal Of Mental Health And Addiction due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2024 there are still no calculated indicators, but in 2023, it was in position 88/279, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Psychiatry.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 1.13. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 14, 2024)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Field Citation Ratio (FCR) from Dimensions: 1.61 (source consulted: Dimensions Jun 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2025-06-24, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 3
  • Scopus: 3
  • Open Alex: 2
  • OpenCitations: 2

Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2025-06-24:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 9.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 9 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 4.2.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 7 (Altmetric).
Continuing with the social impact of the work, it is important to emphasize that, due to its content, it can be assigned to the area of interest of ODS 2 - Zero hunger, with a probability of 58% according to the mBERT algorithm developed by Aurora University.

Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Belgium; Finland; Portugal.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (López Pelayo, Hugo) .

the author responsible for correspondence tasks has been Madero Gómez, Santiago.