A national study found that teenagers in the United States used significantly less alcohol and drugs in 2024 compared to years past.
Alcohol consumption among teenagers declined steadily from 2000 to 2024 — falling from 73% to 42% in 12th grade, 65% to 26% in 10th grade and 43% to 13% in 8th grade — according to the data. from Monitoring the Future (MTF), an annual study funded by the federal government.
Each year, the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research uses grant money from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to conduct the MTF’s main study, which surveys more than 25,000 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students to track behavior, attitudes and adolescent values.
Meanwhile, the MTF study panel is conducting additional research with approximately 20,000 adults ages 19 to 65 to continue tracking trends over time.
A teenager drinking alcohol (photo).
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The main study found that, in addition to a “long-term, overall decline” in teen alcohol use, in 2024, “alcohol use declined significantly in both 12th and 10th grades for lifetime use and use in the past 12 months. In 10th grade, also has dropped significantly for usage in the last 30 days.”
Binge drinking, which the researchers defined as “having five or more drinks in a row at least once during the past two weeks,” among teenagers also declined in 2024 for all three grades compared to 2023 and the past two and a half decades.
Since 2000, binge drinking has dropped from 30% to 9% in 12th grade, from 24% to 5% in 10th grade, and from 12% to 2% in 8th grade.
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Teenagers drink beer (photo).
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Teen cigarette use in 2024 was the lowest since the survey began tracking 12th graders in 1975 and 10th and 8th graders in 1991. “The intense public debate in the late 1990s about cigarette policy likely played an important role in creating very significant declines in adolescent smoking that followed,” the researchers said, adding that “an important Milestone occurred in 2009 with the passage of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which gave the US Food and Drug Administration the authority to regulate the manufacture, marketing and sale of tobacco products.”
The researchers emphasized that “over time, this dramatic decline in regular smoking should produce significant improvements in population health and longevity.”
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Teen use of marijuana (non-medical) in 2024 also declined for all three grades, with the percentage of students using marijuana in the past 12 months at 26% in 12th grade, 16% in 10th grade, and 7% in 8th grade.
“Levels of annual marijuana use today are significantly lower than the historic peaks recorded in the late 1970s, when more than half of 12th graders used marijuana in the past 12 months,” the researchers reported.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education