It’s an age-old worry among many parents: Is my kid using drugs?
Data shows why such concerns these days go beyond fretting over a teen potentially puffing on pot, with the rise of fentanyl fueling record-high fatal overdose totals in the U.S. and research pointing to the synthetic opioid’s deadly impact on youth.
But there’s also more positive news: Illicit drug use among American teens has held fairly steady around the lower levels reached in 2021, amid the school and societal disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Estimates from the most recent iteration of the annual Monitoring the Future survey also show significant increases in the shares of 10th- and 12th-graders who have never used alcohol, marijuana or nicotine, to approximately 54% and 38%, respectively.
The Monitoring the Future survey since 1975 has provided a national snapshot on the state of substance use among America’s adolescents and teens. The most recent drug use estimates were drawn from surveys of more than 22,000 students in eighth, 10th and 12th grade across 235 public and private schools.
Which Drugs and Substances Are Teens Using the Most?
Alcohol, marijuana and nicotine through vaping remained the most commonly used substances among teens in 2023, though at levels notably below what they were prior to the pandemic.
Approximately 29% of 12th-graders, 18% of 10th-graders and 8% of 8th-graders had used marijuana sometime over the previous 12 months in 2023 – rates that remained relatively unchanged since 2021. Among all three grades combined, lifetime use of marijuana/hashish stood at 23%. The drops in marijuana use since the onset of the pandemic have marked the first substantial change in prevalence in over a decade, researchers said.
Meanwhile, the share of 12th-graders estimated to have used alcohol over the past 12 months decreased from 52% in 2022 to 46% in 2023. Past-year prevalence stood at 31% among 10th-graders and 15% among eighth-graders, while lifetime use among all students was 36%.
Nicotine vaping within the past year fell significantly among both 10th- and 12th-graders from 2022 to 2023, landing at 18% and 23%, respectively. It held fairly steady at 11% among students in eighth grade. Lifetime use among all three grades was 25%.
Other Drug and Substance Use Among Teens
Relatedly, lifetime cigarette use “trended slightly downward in all three grades” in 2023, according to a Monitoring the Future report on the latest survey results. Lifetime use among all grade levels was approximately 10%.
“Overall, cigarette prevalence in 2023 (was) at or near the lowest ever recorded by the survey since the start of the survey in 1975,” the report states.
Lifetime prevalence rates for other drugs across all three grade levels include:
Cocaine – 1.1%
Methamphetamine – 0.5%
Heroin – 0.5%
Hallucinogens (including LSD and psilocybin) – 4%
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Among 12th-graders, past-year prevalence rates for select drugs include:
OxyContin – 0.6%
Vicodin – 0.6%
Ecstasy (MDMA) – 0.7%
Ketamine – 1%
Any prescription drug (without doctor’s orders) – 4.1%
Digging Into Delta-8, aka ‘Diet Weed’
New to the survey in 2023 was asking 12th-graders about their use of delta-8 THC, which is a variant of the main psychoactive compound in cannabis and has been referred to as “diet weed.” Legal at the federal level due to a legislative loophole but not in all states, delta-8 has become accessible in places like gas stations, smoke shops and convenience stores. It comes in various forms, including gummy candies and flavored vaping devices.
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More than 11% of 12th-grade students used delta-8 over the past 12 months in 2023, according to MTF estimates. Prevalence of delta-8 use was found to be higher among teens who lived in states that had not legalized recreational marijuana for adults.
“Potential health effects of delta-8, including dependence, are currently unknown,” the report states.
Spike in Legal Use of ADHD Medications
The share of 12th-grade students who had ever legally used drugs to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder declined slightly in 2023 to 14.3% after jumping from 11% in 2021 to a high of 14.6% in 2022 – its largest single-year increase on record.
Lifetime prevalence among 8th-grade students declined from 12% in 2022 to 10% in 2023, while the percentage remained unchanged at close to 11% among 10th grade students in both 2022 and 2023.
“It is possible that the need for treatment of ADHD increased during the pandemic due to adolescents experiencing more stress during the pandemic,” the MTF report states. “Another possibility is that sheltering at home during the pandemic may have made any attention issues of adolescents more salient to their parents.”
Illicit Prescription Drug Use Down
Use of any prescription drug without a doctor’s orders among 12th-graders continued to hover around the lower level reached in 2021, after the pandemic took hold.
In 2023, the past-year prevalence of prescription medication use was 4% among 12th-grade students, compared with 5% in 2022 and 7.5% in 2020. Lifetime prevalence in 2023 was 8.5%, down from 14% in 2020.