On December 15, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA)—a federal research agency in the United States Department of Health and Human Services—published new data showing a significant decrease in drug use among adolescents in 2021.
It’s the largest overall drop in teenagers’ illicit drug use reported in the country since 1975.
The annual Monitoring the Future survey, conducted by researchers at NIDA and the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research, measures the “substance use behaviors and attitudes” of eight-, tenth- and twelfth-graders.
It found that the most common substances used by teenagers in those grades—alcohol, cannabis and (vaped) nicotine—were all being used less. This follows a few years of notable increases before rates flattened in 2020.
“We have never seen such dramatic decreases in drug use among teens in just a one-year period,” NIDA Director Nora Volkow said in a press statement.
Alex Norcia – Filter – 2021-12-15.
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