Teen Substance Use Shows
Promising Decline
NIH Monitoring the Future survey shows use of most illicit substances down, but past year marijuana use relatively stable.
The 2016 Monitoring the Future (MTF) annual survey results released Dec. 13 from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) reflect changing teen behaviors and choices in a social media-infused world. The results show a continued long-term decline in the use of many illicit substances, including marijuana, as well as alcohol, tobacco and misuse of some prescription medications, among the nation’s teens. The MTF survey measures drug use and attitudes among eighth, 10th and 12th graders, and is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the NIH.
Findings from the survey indicate that past year use of any illicit drug was the lowest in the survey’s history for eighth graders, while past year use of illicit drugs other than marijuana is down from recent peaks in all three grades.
Marijuana use in the past month among eighth graders dropped significantly in 2016 to 5.4%, from 6.5% in 2015. Daily use among eighth graders dropped in 2016 to 0.7% from 1.1% in 2015. However, among high school seniors, 22.5% report past month marijuana use and 6% report daily use; both measures remained relatively stable from last year. Similarly, rates of marijuana use in the past year among 10th graders also remained stable compared to 2015, but are at their lowest levels in more than two decades.
The survey also shows that there continues to be a higher rate of marijuana use among 12th graders in states with medical marijuana laws, compared to states without them. For example, in 2016, 38.3% of high school seniors in states with medical marijuana laws reported past year marijuana use, compared to 33.3% in non-medical marijuana states, reflecting previous research that has suggested that these differences precede enactment of medical marijuana laws.
The survey indicates that marijuana and e-cigarettes are more popular than regular tobacco cigarettes. The past month rates among 12th graders are 12.4% for e-cigarettes and 10.5% for cigarettes. A large drop in the use of tobacco cigarettes was seen in all three grades, with a long-term decline from their peak use more than two decades ago. For example, in 1991, when MTF first measured cigarette smoking, 10.7% of high school seniors smoked a half pack or more a day. Twenty-five years later, that rate has dropped to only 1.8%, reflecting the success of widespread public health anti-smoking campaigns and policy changes.
There has been a similar decline in the use of alcohol, with the rate of teens reporting they have “been drunk” in the past year at the survey’s lowest rates ever. For example, 37.3% of 12th graders reported they have been drunk at least once, down from a peak of 53.2% in 2001.
Although non-medical use of prescription opioids remains a serious issue in the adult population, teen use of prescription opioid pain relievers is trending downward among 12th graders with a 45% drop in past year use compared to five years ago. For example, only 2.9% of high school seniors reported past year misuse of the pain reliever Vicodin in 2016, compared to nearly 10% a decade ago.
“Clearly our public health prevention efforts, as well as policy changes to reduce availability, are working to reduce teen drug use, especially among eighth graders,” said Nora Volkow, director of NIDA. “However, when 6% of high school seniors are using marijuana daily, and new synthetics are continually flooding the illegal marketplace, we cannot be complacent. We also need to learn more about how teens interact with each other in this social media era and how those behaviors affect substance use rates.”
Read the full NIH article online.
Editor’s Note: This article is provided by the National Institutes of Health.