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To examine associations of concern, worry, and stress about discrimination, shootings/violence, and police brutality and exclusive and dual tobacco and cannabis use among young adults. A prospective, racially/ethnically diverse cohort of young adults (n = 1960) living in Los Angeles, California completed a baseline survey in 2020 (age range: 19–23) and a follow-up survey in 2021. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was employed on nine variables assessing levels of concern, worry, and stress about societal discrimination, societal shootings/violence, and community police brutality at baseline. Past 30-day tobacco and cannabis use at follow-up was categorized as current exclusive tobacco, exclusive cannabis, and dual tobacco and cannabis (vs never/former) use based on eleven use variables. Multinomial logistic regressions estimated adjusted associations between each factor score (translated to standard deviation units) with exclusive and dual tobacco and cannabis use. The EFA produced four factor scores representing concern/worry/stress (i.e., distress) about community police brutality (F1), distress about societal shootings/violence (F2), and distress about societal discrimination (F3), as well as generalized stress about police brutality, shootings/violence, and discrimination (F4). F1, F2, and F3 were associated with subsequent exclusive current cannabis use, with F1 having the strongest association (OR: 1.35, 95% CI: 1.18–1.55), while only F1 (OR: 1.51, 95% CI: 1.27–1.78) was associated with dual tobacco and cannabis use. None of the factors were associated with exclusive tobacco use. Young adult concern, worry, and/or stress about social problems may increase risk of cannabis use with or without concurrent tobacco use 6–12 months later. • Approximately 14% of young adults used dual tobacco and cannabis. • Distress about most social problems were associated with exclusive cannabis use. • Distress about police brutality was associated with dual tobacco and cannabis use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: It is unknown whether increasing attention to police brutality is a source of stress associated with substance use risk among young people.Methods: A longitudinal racially/ethnically diverse cohort from Los Angeles, California (n = 1797) completed baseline (2017; mean age: 17.9) and follow-up (2020; mean age: 21.2) surveys assessing level of concern, worry, and stress about police brutality (range: 0 'not at all' - 4 'extremely') and past 30-day nicotine, cannabis, alcohol, other drug, and number of substances used (0-19). Regression models, adjusted for demographic characteristics and baseline substance use, evaluated whether changes in distress about police brutality from 2017 to 2020 were associated with substance use in 2020 overall and stratified by race/ethnicity.Results: Distress about police brutality increased between 2017 (mean: 1.59) and 2020 (mean: 2.43) overall. Black/African American and Hispanic/Latino respondents consistently had the highest mean distress levels at both timepoints. In the full sample, each one-unit greater increase in distress about police brutality from 2017 to 2020 was associated with 11% higher odds of cannabis use, 13% higher odds of alcohol use, and 8% higher risk of using an additional substance for the number of substances used outcome. Race/ethnicity-stratified models indicated that greater increases in distress from 2017 to 2020 was associated with substance use among Black/African American, Hispanic, and multiracial respondents in 2020, but not Asian American/Pacific Islander and White respondents.Conclusions: Distress about police brutality may be associated with substance use, particularly among certain racial/ethnic minority young people. Further investigation of whether police brutality affects health in disparity populations is needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]