Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975-2017: Overview, key findings on adolescent drug use

Abstract

i tracked adolescent drug use.Nicotine vaping prevalence rates in 2018 were 11%, 25%, and 30%, respectively.Marijuana vaping also increased substantially in 2018 as this new way of using marijuana becomes more mainstream.In 2018 prevalence of use in the last 12 months increased 1.3, 4.2, and 3.6 percentage points in 8 th , 10 th , and 12 th grades to levels of 4.4%, 12.4%, and 13.1%, respectively.Vaping just flavoring also substantially increased in 2018 to past-year prevalence levels of 15%, 25%, and 26% in 8 th , 10 th , and 12 th grades.Adolescents associate little risk of harm with vaping.MTF asks separately about regular use of "e-cigarettes" and also regular vaping of nicotine.Levels of perceived risk for these behaviors rank near the lowest of all substances, with little change in recent years. Alcohol Use Continues Declining in Upper GradesAlcohol remains the substance most widely used by today's teenagers.Despite recent declines, by the end of high school six out of every ten students (59%) have consumed alcohol (more than just a few sips) at some time in their lives (after a significant 3 percentage point drop in 2018); and about a quarter (24%) have done so by 8 th grade.(Only the 12 th grade showed significant change in 2018.)Alcohol use began a substantial decline in the 1980s.To some degree, alcohol trends have tended to parallel the trends in illicit drug use.These include a modest increase in binge drinking (defined as having five or more drinks in a row at least once in the past two weeks) in the early to mid-1990s, though it was a proportionally smaller increase than was seen for cigarettes and most of the illicit drugs.Fortunately, binge drinking rates leveled off in the early 2000s, just about when the illicit drug rates began to turn around, and in 2002, a drop in drinking and drunkenness resumed in all grades.Gradual declines in thirty-day prevalence continued in the upper grades into 2018, which marked the lowest levels for alcohol use and drunkenness ever recorded by the survey in the three grades combined.However, the decline in the annual prevalence of alcohol use has halted in the two lower grades.Only in 12 th grade is decline continuing, likely as the result of a cohort effect.This development may herald the end of the long-term decline in adolescent alcohol use.Still, prior to this year lifetime prevalence and annual prevalence for the three grades combined both declined by roughly 40-45% from the peak levels of use reached in the mid-1990s; 30-day prevalence was down by about one-half since then; and daily prevalence by three-fourths.These are dramatic declines for such a culturally ingrained behavior and good news to many parents.3 Prevalence refers to the proportion or percentage of the sample reporting use of the given substance on one or more occasions in a given time interval-e.g., lifetime, past 12 months, or past 30 days.For most drugs, the prevalence of daily use refers to reported use on 20 or more occasions in the past 30 days, except for cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, for which actual daily use is measured, and for binge drinking, defined as having 5+ drinks on at least one occasion in the prior two weeks.