On August 17, 2023, a news release highlighted an all-time increase in marijuana and hallucinogens usage in people aged between 19 and 30 as well as binge drinking in people in the age bracket of 35 to 50.
Cannabis
These findings come from an annual survey called Monitoring the Future (MTF) study that is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and conducted by researchers from the University of Michigan.
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Purpose of the study
The MTF has looked at drug abuse among 8th, 10th, and 12th-grade students every year, since 1975. The researchers also follow up with the participating individuals at different intervals to understand their behaviors regarding drug use in their adult lives.
Past trends
In the young adult population, marijuana and hallucinogen use shows an increasing use for the last five years. Older adults ranging in age from 35 to 50 have shown an increasing trend for binge drinking in the last few years while binge drinking has been declining in people aged 19-30 years.
2022 survey
The researchers mainly categorized the study participants into two age groups, the first one included people aged 19 to 30 while the second group consisted of individuals ranging from 35 to 50 years old. They utilized surveys (delivered online or on paper) to collect the required data during 7 months starting from April 2022 and ending at the end of October 2022.
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Important findings about the usage of different substances are mentioned below:
Marijuana
In the first age group, marijuana use has increased significantly as a record-high number of people reported marijuana use. About 44% of the surveyed individuals used marijuana in 2021. This is the highest-ever past-year marijuana use since the MTF study began and it is a significant rise from the numbers in 2017 (35%) and 2012 (28%).
Similarly, individuals ranging in age from 19 to 30 using marijuana daily also increased significantly from the 2017 and 2012 numbers. 11% of the individuals aged 19 to 30 reported everyday marijuana use in the 2022 survey while this percentage was 8% in 2017 (5 years ago) and 6% in 2012 (10 years ago).
A record percentage (28%) of older adults (35 to 50) also consumed marijuana in the preceding year. This is higher than the numbers studied in 2021 (25%).
These numbers are almost double the numbers recorded ten years ago. In 2012, only 13% reported marijuana past-year use.
Hallucinogens and Vaping
In the age group 19 to 30, 22% of participants reported past-year marijuana vaping and 24% said that they did nicotine vaping in the preceding year. These percentages were significantly higher than the percentages reported 5 and 10 years ago. Vaping numbers didn’t change significantly in the age group of 35 to 50.
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Regarding hallucinogens past-year figures, 8% in the 19-30 age group reported use while 4% of the participants reported hallucinogen use in people aged 35 to 50 years old. These numbers are also markedly higher than the previous reports.
Alcohol
84% of the individuals aged 19 to 30 mentioned past-year and binge drinking in the 2022 survey, This was higher than the last year’s survey (82%). Overall, alcohol use has been declining in this age group in the last decade.
However, individuals in the older adult population group are consuming more alcohol. The study has shown a consistent increase in alcohol use for people aged 35 to 50 in the last 10 years. This year’s numbers showed a similar upward pattern with 85% reporting past-year drinking and 29% reporting binge drinking.
Other substances
This study also looks at the use of other substance use like cigarettes, opioid medications, and amphetamines. The survey shows that cigarette use and opioid medications use decreased in both age groups while amphetamine use showed an increase in the age group of 35 to 50.
Significance
According to researchers, surveys like this help researchers assess drug-related behaviors of people over extensive periods and assist in developing policies to educate people for better-informed decision-making about substance use.
References
Marijuana and hallucinogen use, binge drinking reached historic highs. (2023, August 17). National Institutes of Health (NIH). https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/marijuana-hallucinogen-use-binge-drinking-reached-historic-highs-among-adults-35-50
