Missing rebound: Youth drug use defies expectations, continues historic decline

University of Michigan

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Adolescent drug use continued to drop in 2024, building on and extending the historically large decreases that occurred during the pandemic onset in 2020.

"I expected adolescent drug use would rebound at least partially after the large declines that took place during the pandemic onset in 2020, which were among the largest ever recorded," said Richard Miech, team lead of the Monitoring the Future study at U-M's Institute for Social Research. 

"Many experts in the field had anticipated that drug use would resurge as the pandemic receded and social distancing restrictions were lifted. As it turns out, the declines have not only lasted but have dropped further." 

Miech is a principal investigator of the Monitoring the Future Study, which annually surveys eighth, 10th and 12th grade students across the United States.

The number of students who abstained from drug use reached record levels in 2024, with abstention defined as no past 30-day use of alcohol, marijuana or nicotine cigarettes or e-cigarettes. 

The percentage of students who abstained from the use of these drugs in 2024 was 67% in 12th grade (compared to 53% in 2017 when it was first measured), 80% in 10th grade (compared to 69% in 2017) and 90% in eighth grade (compared to 87% in 2017). The increases in abstention from 2023 to 2024 were statistically significant in the 12th and 10th grades.

Declines in drug use in 2024 were evident across alcohol, marijuana and nicotine vaping, which are the three most common forms of substance use by adolescents:

• For alcohol, significant decreases in 12th and 10th grades continued a long-standing decline that began in the late 1990s. In 2024, 42% of 12th graders reported using alcohol in the past 12 months, a substantial drop from 75% in 1997. Among 10th graders, the percentage fell to 26% from 65% in 1997; among eighth graders, it dropped to 13% from 46% in 1997.

• For marijuana, decreases in use among students are a more recent development. In all three grades, the percentage who used marijuana in the past 12 months hovered within a tight window of just a few percentage points in the 20 years from 2000 to 2020. In 2021, the first year surveyed after the pandemic onset, substantial declines in marijuana use took place in all three grades. In 12th and 10th grades, these declines have since continued, and past 12-month use levels in 2024 were the lowest in the past three decades, at 26% and 16%, respectively. In eighth grade, the percentage in 2024 was 7%, the same for the past four years after dropping from a pre-pandemic level of 11% in 2020. 

• For nicotine vaping, the 2024 declines continue a 180-degree turn centered around the pandemic onset. Before the pandemic, use levels surged from 2017 to 2019 and then held steady in 2020 (before the pandemic onset). Large declines took place during the pandemic, and these declines have since continued to the point where the 2024 levels for the past 12 months of nicotine vaping are close to where they started in 2017, the first year that questions on nicotine vaping were included on the survey. Specifically, past 12-month use was 21% in 12th grade (compared to 35% in 2020 and 19% in 2017), 15% in 10th grade (compared to 31% in 2020 and 16% in 2017) and 10% in eighth grade (compared to 17% in 2020 and 10% in 2017).

The continued declines in adolescent drug use since the pandemic raise important policy and research questions. They suggest that a delay in drug use initiation during adolescence could potentially lower substance use trajectories over a lifetime, Miech says.

Such a delay, he says, may prevent youth from associating with drug-using peer groups that encourage continued use and may forestall biological processes that contribute to the development of addiction.

The Monitoring the Future study is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, one of the National Institutes of Health. It is conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan. 

Reported use of most drugs among adolescents remained low in 2024

New NIH-funded data show lower use of most substances continues following the COVID-19 pandemic

NIH/National Institute on Drug Abuse

After declining significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, substance use among adolescents has continued to hold steady at lowered levels for the fourth year in a row, according to the latest results from the Monitoring the Future Survey, which is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). These recent data continue to document stable and declining trends in the use of most drugs among young people.

“This trend in the reduction of substance use among teenagers is unprecedented,” said Nora D. Volkow, M.D., director of NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). “We must continue to investigate factors that have contributed to this lowered risk of substance use to tailor interventions to support the continuation of this trend.”

Reported use for almost all measured substances decreased dramatically between 2020 and 2021, after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and related changes like school closures and social distancing. In 2022 and 2023, most reported substance use among adolescents held steady at these lowered levels, with similar trends and some decreases in use in 2024.

The Monitoring the Future survey is conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and funded by NIDA. The survey is given annually to students in eighth, 10th, and 12th grades who self-report their substance use behaviors over various time periods, such as past 30 days, past 12 months, and lifetime. The survey also documents students’ perceptions of harm, disapproval of use, and perceived availability of drugs. The survey results are released the same year the data are collected. From February through June 2024, the Monitoring the Future investigators collected 24,257 surveys from students enrolled across 272 public and private schools in the United States.

When breaking down the data by specific drugs, the survey found that adolescents most commonly reported use of alcohol, nicotine vaping, and cannabis in the 12 months prior to the survey, and levels generally declined from or held steady with the lowered use reported over the past few years. Compared to levels reported in 2023, data reported in 2024 show:

• Alcohol use remained stable for eighth graders, with 12.9% reporting use in the past 12 months. Alcohol use declined among the other two grades surveyed, with 26.1% of 10th graders reporting alcohol use in the past 12 months (compared to 30.6% in 2023), and 41.7% of 12th graders reporting alcohol use in the past 12 months (compared to 45.7% in 2023). 
• Nicotine vaping remained stable for eighth and 12th graders, with 9.6% of eighth graders and 21.0% of 12th graders reporting vaping nicotine in the past 12 months. It declined among 10th graders, with 15.4% reporting nicotine vaping in the past 12 months (compared to 17.6% in 2023).
• Nicotine pouch use remained stable for eighth graders, with 0.6% reporting use within the past 12 months. It increased among the two older grades with 3.4% of 10th graders reporting nicotine pouch use in the past 12 months (compared to 1.9% in 2023) and 5.9% of 12th graders reporting nicotine pouch use in the past 12 months (compared to 2.9% in 2023).
• Cannabis use remained stable for the younger grades, with 7.2% of eighth graders and 15.9% of 10th graders reporting cannabis use in the past 12 months. Cannabis use declined among 12th graders, with 25.8% reporting cannabis use in the past 12 months (compared to 29.0% in 2023). Of note, 5.6% of eighth graders, 11.6% of 10th graders, and 17.6% of 12th graders reported vaping cannabis within the past 12 months, reflecting a stable trend among all three grades.
• Delta-8-THC (a psychoactive substance found in the Cannabis sativa plant) use was measured for the first time among eighth and 10th graders in 2024, with 2.9% of eighth graders and 7.9% of 10th graders reporting use within the past 12 months. Reported use of Delta-8-THC among 12th graders remained stable with 12.3% reporting use within the past 12 months.
• Any illicit drug use other than marijuana declined among eight graders, with 3.4% reporting use in the past 12 months compared to 4.6% in 2023). It remained stable for the other two grades surveyed, with 4.4% of 10th graders and 6.5% of 12th graders reporting any illicit drug use other than marijuana in the past 12 months. These data build on long-term trends documenting low and declining use of illicit substances reported among teenagers – including past-year use of cocaine, heroin, and misuse of prescription drugs, generally.
• Use of narcotics other than heroin (including Vicodin, OxyContin, Percocet, etc.) are only reported among 12th graders, and decreased in 2024, with 0.6% reporting use within the past 12 months (reflecting an all-time low, down from a high of 9.5% in 2004).
• Abstaining, or not using, marijuana, alcohol, and nicotine in the past 30 days, remained stable for eighth graders, with 89.5% reporting abstaining from use of these drugs in the past 30 days prior to the survey. It increased for the two older grades, with 80.2% of 10th graders reporting abstaining from any use of marijuana, alcohol, and nicotine over the past 30 days (compared to 76.9% in 2023) and 67.1% of 12th graders reporting abstaining from use of these drugs in the past 30 days (compared to 62.6% in 2023).

“Kids who were in eighth grade at the start of the pandemic will be graduating from high school this year, and this unique cohort has ushered in the lowest rates of substance use we’ve seen in decades,” said Richard A. Miech, Ph.D., team lead of the Monitoring the Future survey at the University of Michigan. “Even as the drugs, culture, and landscape continue to evolve in future years, the Monitoring the Future survey will continue to nimbly adapt to measure and report on these trends – just as it has done for the past 50 years.”

The results were gathered from a nationally representative sample, and the data were statistically weighted to provide national numbers. This year, 35% of students who took the survey identified as Hispanic. Of those who did not identify as Hispanic, 14% identified as Black or African American, 1% as American Indian or Alaska Native, 4% as Asian, 1% as Middle Eastern, 37% as white, and 7% as more than one of the preceding non-Hispanic categories.  The survey also asks respondents to identify as male, female, other, or prefer not to answer. For the 2024 survey, 47% of students identified as male, 49% identified as female, 1% identified as other, and 3% selected the “prefer not to answer” option.

All participating students took the survey via the web – either on tablets or on a computer – with 99% of respondents taking the survey in-person in school in 2024.

The 2024 Monitoring the Future data tables highlighting the survey results are available online from the University of Michigan.

If you or someone you know is struggling or in crisis, help is available. Call or text 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org. To learn how to get support for mental health, drug or alcohol conditions, visit FindSupport.gov. If you are ready to locate a treatment facility or provider, you can go directly to FindTreatment.gov or call 800-662-HELP (4357).

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About the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA): NIDA is a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIDA supports most of the world’s research on the health aspects of drug use and addiction. The Institute carries out a large variety of programs to inform policy, improve practice, and advance addiction science. For more information about NIDA and its programs, visit www.nida.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation’s medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

About substance use disorders: Substance use disorders are chronic, treatable conditions from which people can recover. In 2022, nearly 49 million people in the United States had at least one substance use disorder. Substance use disorders are defined in part by continued use of substances despite negative consequences. They are also relapsing conditions, in which periods of abstinence (not using substances) can be followed by a return to use. Stigma can make individuals with substance use disorders less likely to seek treatment. Using preferred language can help accurately report on substance use and addiction. View NIDA’s online guide.

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