A longitudinal study funded by the National Institutes of Health is painting a picture of how drug use has changed in recent decades, saying the prevalence of marijuana and hallucinogenic substances are more widely used – at least among younger Americans – than ever before.
The health agency first began tracking adult Americans’ substance use in 1975, though most of the comprehensive data-gathering began in 1988, and separated the study groups into young adults between the ages of 19 to 30 and older adults aged 35 to 50. The study, dubbed Monitoring the Future, was conducted by the University of Michigan.
In 2021, nearly 43% of young adults reported using marijuana in the past 12 months, while around 29% reported using the substance in the previous month. That “historically high” number, researchers said, reflects almost a 13% jump from when the data was first recorded over three decades ago, and a 8.8% increase over the past decade.
The prevalence of those who reported marijuana use in the previous 30 days also increased in those time frames, up from 17% of respondents in 1988 and just over 16% in 2012.
Young American adults also reported the highest levels of non-LSD hallucinogen consumption since 1988 at 6.3%, up from just 1.6% when the data was first recorded. Until last year, those numbers had remained relatively low, and only spiked above 4% one time in 2003 – but saw a jump between 2019 and 2020, when reported usage increased from 3.2% to 5.2%.
Notably, young Americans had “historically low prevalence levels” for smoking cigarettes. Just over 18% of young adults reported using a cigarette in the previous year, while 9% reported having used a cigarette in the past 30 days, numbers that have been steadily decreasing since 2004. But nicotine vaping has nearly tripled among the age cohort since it was first measured in 2017, up from 6% who reported using the substance in the past 30 days that year to 16% in 2021, but below the all-time recorded high of 23% in 2019.
“As the drug landscape shifts over time, this data provides a window into the substances and patterns of use favored by young adults,” said Nora Volkow, M.D., director of the NIH subsidiary National Institute on Drug Abuse. “We need to know more about how young adults are using drugs like marijuana and hallucinogens, and the health effects that result from consuming different potencies and forms of these substances.”
There are many reasons why those changes may have occurred. For marijuana, at least, the varying legal status across numerous states can help explain why more Americans tend to consume the substance. An overwhelming majority of Americans now believe marijuana should be decriminalized, at least to some extent, at either the federal or state levels, with one Pew Research poll in 2019 finding around 67% of the country thinking the use of marijuana should be made legal.
Those numbers are even higher for the younger generations, with 76% of Millenial respondents – or those born between 1981 - 1997 – supporting legalization, compared to 65% and 63% for Generation X and Boomer respondents, respectively.
And marijuana legalization has, for the most part, kept pace with American sentiment. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, at least 37 states now allow the use of medical cannabis for adults; as of May, 19 states legalized recreational marijuana.
So too has acceptance for certain hallucinogenic drugs grown in recent years. This summer, physicians and researchers urged New Mexico legislators to allow the use of psychedelic mushrooms in mental health therapy aimed at overcoming depression, anxiety, psychological trauma and alcoholism.
Recent studies indicate psilocybin could be useful in the treatment of major depression, including mental suffering among terminally ill patients, and for substance abuse including alcoholism, with low risks of addiction or overdose under medical supervision.
But it’s largely still illegal in the U.S., though Oregon and several cities have decriminalized it. Starting next year, Oregon will allow its supervised use by licensed facilitators. And in several states, military veterans are helping to persuade lawmakers to study psychedelic mushrooms for therapeutic use in addressing post-traumatic stress.
On the flip side, the U.S. government has taken steps in recent years to curb a national surge in teen vaping, with a particular focus on Juul to pull its electronic cigarettes from the market.
E-cigarettes first appeared in the U.S. more than a decade ago with the promise of providing smokers a less harmful alternative. The devices heat a nicotine solution into a vapor that’s inhaled, bypassing many of the toxic chemicals produced by burning tobacco.
But studies have reached conflicting results about whether they truly help smokers quit. And efforts by the FDA to rule on vaping products and their claims were repeatedly slowed by industry lobbying and competing political interests.
The vaping market grew to include hundreds of companies selling an array of devices and nicotine solutions in various flavors and strengths.
The vaping issue took on new urgency in 2018 when Juul’s high-nicotine, fruity-flavored cartridges quickly became a nationwide craze among middle and high school students. The company faces a slew of federal and state investigations into its early marketing practices, which included distributing free Juul products at concerts and parties hosted by young influencers.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.