Study: Most US Teens Do Not Drink, Smoke

01Drug use among teenagers has continued to drop since the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, a large national study says.

02The federally financed Monitoring the Future study has been carried out yearly since 1975.

03However, the study only started measuring abstinence, the practice of rejecting alcohol or recreational drug use, in 2017.

04This year's findings are based on answers from about 24,000 students in grades 8, 10, and 12 in schools across the United States.

05One major finding, about 66% of 12th graders said they had not used alcohol, marijuana, and traditional or electronic cigarettes in the previous 30 days.

06That share, or proportion, of students is the largest since the yearly study started measuring abstinence.

07The study is one of the best, if not the best, source of national data for substance use by teens, said Noah Kresge.

08Kresge is a Columbia University data analyst who has studied teen drug use.

09Among 10th graders, 80% said they had not used alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes, or e-cigarettes recently, another record.

10Among 8th graders, 90% did not use any of them, the same as was reported in the previous study.

11The only major increase found was in the use of nicotine pouches, small white containers of nicotine, which users place in their mouths.

12About 6% of 12th graders said they had used that form of nicotine in the past year, up from about 3% in 2023.

13Whether that has the makings of a new public health problem is unclear.

14The University of Michigan's Richard Mietch, who leads the study, said, It's hard to know if we're seeing the start of something or not.

15Early in the pandemic, students across the country were told not to go to schools and to avoid parties or other gatherings.

16Alcohol and drug use of all kinds dropped likely because use most often happens in friend group settings.

17Friends often influence each other to use drugs, experts say.

18As lockdowns ended, I think everyone expected at least a partial rebound, Mietch said.

19Even before the pandemic, there were decreases in teen cigarette smoking, drinking, and the use of several kinds of drugs.

20Experts suggested that teens were staying home as opposed to spending time in social settings, in which use of illegal substances is more likely.

21But marijuana use was not falling before the pandemic, and vaping was increasing.

22It was only during the pandemic that those activities began to decrease also.

23Some experts wonder if the pandemic lockdowns had a deeper influence.

24Mietch noted that a lot of teens who experiment with e-cigarettes or drugs start in the ninth grade, sometimes because older children are doing it.

25But the children who were ninth graders during the lockdowns never picked up the activity, and they never had the opportunity to turn into negative influencers of their younger classmates, he said.

26The pandemic stopped the cycle of new kids coming in and being recruited to drug use, Mietch said.

27Mental health may also play a part.

28There were increased reports of depression and anxiety in kids after the pandemic began.

29Depression is often linked with substance use, but some people with depression and anxiety are very cautious about experimenting with drugs, said Dr.

30Duncan Clark.

31Clark is a University of Pittsburgh medical doctor who researches substance use in kids.

32Some teens with anxiety are worried about the effects of substances.

33They may also be socially inhibited and have less opportunity to use drugs, Clark said.

34I'm John Russell.

35I'm John Russell.