Prevention and intervention programs should focus on identifying and modifying these risk factors. Thus, programs focussing on not just the individual, but also their family and peer groups, could be beneficial. Also, parents should be aware of the role they could play in preventing use of cannabis and other drugs by their children. Peers and parents can probably also serve as protective factors for cannabis use. Chabrol et al. (52) found that the number of peers opposed to cannabis use as well as student’s negative expectations of cannabis use were protective factors. Our findings that C influences are more important to cannabis use initiation for females than for males suggest that females may be more sensitive to prevention and intervention programs.
