Summary
Teen drug, alcohol, and tobacco use in the U.S. continues to decline, with record-low usage levels reported in 2023, according to the University of Michigan’s Monitoring the Future survey.
Among 12th graders, 66% reported no recent use of alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes, or e-cigarettes, while 80% of 10th graders and 90% of 8th graders avoided these substances entirely.
Experts attribute the decline partly to reduced peer pressure during the pandemic.
However, nicotine pouch use has doubled among 12th graders, raising concerns.
Despite pop culture’s glamorization of smoking, teen cigarette use remains low.
Pop culture’s glamorization of smoking? What year is it, 1990?
Nah, here’s the real reason. When I was the nightclubbing age, you could get a bottle of booze, 6 cans of coke and mineral water for like $50. Last time I went to a club, I paid $120 for the same thing. People in the 18-25 age range don’t have $120 to drop every Friday.
You also have to give credit to youngins these days that they are smart enough to spend money by going to gym and choosing to live a healthier lifestyle instead. This is according to many news report.
And also, I think the rise of social media is to be credited as well because instead of going out to socialise, the younger generation are socialising digitally. Of course social media has its drawbacks, which is getting highlighted more in recent years for understandable reasons, but it also has an upside and really it offers many alternatives that traditions couldn’t. I know us older folks begrudge social media, but hey, it’s here to stay. For better or worse.
It’s probably my choice of gym but I see almost no young people in it. It’s mostly 30-somethings that figured out that eating garbage all the time and staying thin stops at 30. Yes, that includes me.
Worth noting that school age kids have a vastly different free times than most of us. I often see the same group you’re talking about at the gym, but if I show up right after 5 I see a bunch of high schoolers. They must like to go just after school.
That makes a lot sense and I didn’t even thought of that.
Nah they just broke. The system is not better it’s worse.
I quit smoking a long time ago after many attempts. The key was to simply get poor enough that I simply couldn’t afford it. Perhaps that’s what we’re seeing here.
I mean honestly you might be on to something here, quitting smoking is hard as fuck, you might expect the signal of desperation induced quitting in smoking to reliably cut through the noise of other factors given how difficult it is for other factors to push people to quit.
brutal on so many levels if true tho…
Whenever I see one of these polls being published I imagine how I would have answered them when I was that age, and I would have lied about every negative seeming question.
What if the poll wasn’t really anonymous and this data was going to be passed on to future employers or schools?
Interesting idea but they are comparing different year surveys with the same age children.
Do you think that kids are more prone to lying now, than earlier years?
I’d wager that teenagers these day are much more aware of data collection and more protective of personal information then they were 10-20 years ago. I could be giving them too much credit, though.
Possibly? Could correspond with increased digital surveillance. Most people understand that nothing is private anymore.
Not only that but back then you didn’t have to worry about it with a simple rule:
They ask you a question, do they know your name or who you are? No? It’s anonymous.
Now you don’t have that anymore. Anything can be linked backed to you cause there is always a digital finger print.
Even if you ask random people on the street, there is facial recognition and cameras everywhere.
I’ll offer this as a possible reason: Kids don’t solo travel like they used to. Kids not wanting driver’s licenses as much is a thing.
I think I can speak for older generations a little - we couldn’t wait to get enough independence to have a bike or driver’s license to get out of the house. There was only the telephone to talk to people - as in no internet, no social media, not everyone had computer games or consoles. Eventually you had messaging services like AIM or IRC, but you didn’t really meet up with friends on them because not everyone had PCs, or cared to learn how to use one. There was cable TV if you were lucky, but you didn’t watch that all day. We went from one friend’s house to another, or friends of friend’s homes. You got exposed to a lot more living conditions, often while completely unsupervised. Bored kids or kids with home problems didn’t mind pilfering the alcohol from the parents, or got whatever drug they could. Usually pot. Nothing else to do. Plus some peer pressure.
Now? Kids text. They meet up online on discord or whatever VoIP or messaging service is cool right now. Group chats. Play online games. They don’t need to leave the house to hang out, and in-person hangouts seem way less important to my kids than it ever was to me when I was younger. That’s a lot less opportunity to be introduced to alcohol or other drugs and have the access to them.
So maybe less peer pressure isn’t necessarily a Covid result, it’s the result of social interaction moving to online spaces and not physical spaces where access to alcohol or other drugs are present.
This is a big part of it for sure. I have a 21 year old nephew who refuses to get his license. He just says yeah I’ve got lots of friends that drive me where I need to go. It’s not always going to be like that, kid.
I got my learner’s permit the day I turned 15 and my license the day I turned 16. Couldn’t wait to get away from my family.
People are also more poor in general.
Wages have been stagnating for over 50 years.
Independence requires financial independence.
It’s not possible to meaningfully participate in society without disposable income.
This leads to the avg person having less power and influence than almost any of their ancestors.
Unfortunately nothing will meaningfully improve until the rich fear for their lives
Video games are fundamentally experiences of agency, of being in some kind of environment that is dynamic, spontaneous and in conversation with the player.
Modern life on the other hand is fundamentally the experience of having no agency and being in a car choked landscape where nothing is dynamic, spontaneous or in conversation with you (especially as pedestrian when not driving).
I am goind to spend time where I have agency, where the landscape was designed in joyous anticipation of someone like me existing in it, the real life human spaces around me have been exhaustively rectified to the brutality and logic of latestage capitalism and thus these “real” landscapes around me are dead.
Society seems to every day increasingly hate and punish people who want to explore, play and create. Why the fuck would I want to spend time in real life spaces when they were designed out of a specific hatred for the kind of thing that makes me feel happy, alive and welcome?
Playing video games is something I do because I am poor AND because I gravitate towards landscapes and communities that were designed by people who don’t hate my brain and the way I think and live.
I can barely afford to drink in my basement!
But the point is you do it. Keep up the good fight!
I mean if you didn’t had disposable income, drugs were the last of your worries in that scenario
you’d wish, but the thing with drugs is “you” (the drugs in you) wanna continue even in poverty and homelessness
I don’t have any friend to get high with :((
Never stopped me!
I might just be lucky, but I’ve had great success in getting in random friend groups while playing games where you can build things and explore.
Valheim, space engineers, minecraft, terraria. Stuff like that.
I think maybe it has to do with people logging into the dedicated server and seeing the stuff you build and they think of you. Plus lots of those servers will have a discord and that’s basically getting into a ton of people’s DMs. You can post in the discord music you like, funny dumb pictures and memes. Stuff that really shows what you’re interested in. This way people can see if they’re into the same stuff as you. Then you can branch out to other games or even meet ups IRL.
But what if our teenagers all grow up to be lame?
The coolness gap is real.
Seriously, my teenage niece is a complete square, but still looks up to me as her cool uncle, so I encourage her straight laced nerdiness.
Hopefully she doesn’t burn out in her 20s and make a series of painful but cool mistakes like I did.
This is why it’s important for teenagers to make their coolest mistakes early on in life while there are fewer consequences.
This is why I’m so annoyed at college “police services” and serious crackdowns on protests. WTF, college, this is not what I pay you for. I pay you to be a sandbox where little Johnny can grow and develop and find his voice. Yes, also suffer consequences for his mistakes, but non-serious consequences. Your job is to better prepare him for life, not ruin his life.
My own effing Alma mater glorified building takeovers from the 1960s, talking about the good changes that eventually developed, but then they changed from being a “security” force trying to protect the kids to a “police” force so they can carry guns and arrest kids. Then during the BLM demonstrations they started arresting kids and kicking them out. WTF.
Seriously. The rule should be, “occupy whatever the hell you want. Just don’t create a fire hazard or prevent people from doing their job.” Want to sit-in on the hallway outside the university president’s office? Fine. Just keep the number small enough to not be a fire hazard. Feel free to shout whatever you want at them while they walk to their door. Don’t do anything stupid like chaining yourself to the university president, and you’ll be fine.
Yeah, it would be a bit annoying to be that president and to have to walk past protesters during terms. But so what? You signed up to be the president of the university, the human face of the campus administration. You’re the highest paid person on campus, behind only the football coach. Don’t want to deal with blue haired teenagers shouting at you? Don’t sign up to be a university president!
Gaming and social media is the new addiction.
I’m 41, and my cousin has young teens. I asked “Do kids today even play video games?”
And she said “Not in the way you would think. It’s not about playstation or nintendo. It’s about cell phones and tablets.”
Which made me sad. App gaming is laaaaaame.
I hope that’s just your experience - being relegated to mobile games would be sad. I mean I’m addicted too but I recognize they’re just a time and attention waster.
My older teens are pretty avid gamers as are their friends. One of them started a gaming club at his school! They’re such great kids they sometimes let their Mom or me join a party, and they don’t laugh too hard. But seriously, that’s how they socialize ever since COViD. They’ll spend the entire night in a group chat, listening to music, sometimes teaming up sometimes not, just playing video games and spending time with friends. It works
So bad. It can’t be very good for developing brains either… Video games can be great for developing things like motor functioning and abstract reasoning, and so much of that is lost with the mindlessness of mobile gaming.
App gaming is laaaaaame.
desktops/laptops, ps5, and Xbox all use apps.
This must be why “there’s an app for that” is a phrase that’s been around forever and has nothing to do with the proliferation of mobile devices, i.e. iPhone.
I think he meant mobile gaming, like angry birbs and raid shadow candy crunch.
Considering the article specifies that drugs, alcohol, and tobacco are “social” activities, I think this makes sense. It’s not good that kids are shifting to solitary activities
Gaming is very much a social activity.
Try finding a triple A game released in the last 10 years that hasnt been heavily designed around multiplayer.
It hasnt been until indie games have really caught on, perhaps as a result of the shift towards open world multiplayer gaming that now dominates, that there is still a market for those types of games.
I know multiple married people that used gaming to connect with each other when they had to be apart.
I was actually on one of those married couples first date because they played league of legends, and that was how I even knew them.
Try finding a triple A game released in the last 10 years that hasnt been heavily designed around multiplayer
What? In 2024 alone, would you say games like Alan Wake 2, Baldurs Gate 3 or Elden Ring are “heavily designed around multiplayer”?
Sure you have your FIFA’s and CoD and a bunch of other MP games, but single player games are still a thing.
And honestly, my understanding is that the multiplayer games aren’t very social: they’re almost always using ranked but otherwise random matchmaker settings that mean instead of socializing and getting to know people, you meet your single serving friends and then barely ever see them again.
Depends on the game… I used to play Overwatch, years ago, with a handful of friends regularly, and it was most certainly a social experience.
Try finding a triple A game released in the last 10 years that hasnt been heavily designed around multiplayer.
cyberpunk 2077
Thats one example, my point is only that there arent many titles, not that they dont exist
It’s solitary social activity. Going out and seeing real people can’t be compared to a night gaming. The fact that people don’t see each other is actually a very bad thing because it could be a sign of greater depression and loneliness
If you saw the people I did throughout life, you’d want to stay in the basement as well.
Glad to hear you have met good people throughout life. Just keep in mind not everyone has thar experience.
I couldn’t stand staying indoors all day for work and then never going outside when not at work, it’s too heavy for me
Sorry but that’s like saying social media isnt a social activity. Yes there is s variety of ways to engage with it, but it is something that is causing people to connect with others from a distance.
Its also like saying long distance relationships arent real relationships which would be a ridiculous thing to claim
I believe social media isn’t a social activity because you are laying down on your bed typing on your phone chasing likes and replies. And also comparing a long distance relationship to an in-person one is ridiculous. They are completely different because you are not talking to a person, you are talking to a screen. There is absolutely no comparison to be made between online social activities and real life ones. Talking or gaming online is absolutely different from going out with friends at a chalet for a weekend and it’s a ridiculous thing to say they are similar
We are at an en passe then as we have fundamentally different perspectives on socializing
This. There is no decline at all, I assume. Just an extreme switch to something even more powerful.
Yeah as much as this is good news, I think it’s just a sign of changes that have come in the digital age. Young people go out less in general, because their social life is all online. This is probably safer for them at the end of the day - less driving and less access to substances through friends. But still… the fact that young people are glued to their screens all the time is disturbing. Their lives may be longer, but what is the point of living when all you do is sit inside and consume social media?
Could have fooled me by the way they vote.
Those damned 8th graders, throwing our elections!
Hopefully they’re just smoking weed instead of drugs
Their tick talking and vaping
“Drug use, particularly among adolescents, is typically a social event,” said Miech. “The social distancing policies during the pandemic were designed so that all teenagers and adolescents hardly interacted with anybody except their own immediate family.”
So… they don’t have friends? Very uplifting
Well, they have friends, but after spending about a year not seeing them in person, they are used to just meeting them online. At least anecdotally that’s what I’m seeing with the kids of my group, that going out is a hassle and online is good enough. When they do, it’s maybe a total of three or four people hanging out, no big parties to speak of.
On a related note, the schools I know of pretty much stopped having dances other than the prom. In fact, from what I hear, the ability for students to socialize broadly has been pretty much tanked since the pandemic (stricter schedules, no more lockers, and various other measures instituted to avoid congregating students after pandemic and those policies seem to have stuck, presumably because it makes the students a bit easier to manage. It’s been a cause for concern for me about their social development, as while I never was big on those events, I at least remember a lot more downtime on school grounds that our kids don’t seem to get.
Not just them, frankly we haven’t really been seeing folks in person nearly as much since the pandemic. There are certain special occasions, but we almost never have a “random” visit for no particular reason anymore.
So abstinence does work! /s
They don’t want to admit that its because legal recreational pot usage is on the rise as a safer alternative to nicotine and alcohol
Who’s “they”? This is a university study, not one sponsored by Budweiser/Marlboro.
Also, they didn’t bother separating based on legality, but did research marijuana use and no, it’s not on the rise:
The results show that a whopping 66% of 12th graders reported no use of alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes or e-cigarettes in the past 30 days. This is the highest abstinence rate recorded since the survey began tracking it in 2017.
Also surprising is that marijuana usage among teens is declining – despite a notable upward trend for adults across the US.
“They” are the 12th graders interviewed by the university study
Can’t afford it probably 🤷♂️
Most studies found that raising cigarette prices through increased taxes is a highly effective measure for reducing smoking among youth, young adults, and persons of low socioeconomic status. However, there is a striking lack of evidence about the impact of increasing cigarette prices on smoking behavior in heavy/long-term smokers, persons with a dual diagnosis and Aboriginals. nih
Aboriginals?
Aboriginal Australians are the various Indigenous peoples of the Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands.
:)
Aboriginal is mostly associated with Australia, but since this is a Canadian study I thought it would be helpful to link to the tribes there.
For North Americans the term most often heard in popular usage is ‘Indigenous’
I just wondered how you cannot get rid of tobacco as an aboriginal it seems XD probably rituals?
Quite the opposite actually, and not really amusing in the slightest:
The global promotion of commercial tobacco, and the subsequent addiction of Indigenous peoples to commercialized nicotine products, is a modern form of colonization and subjugation at national and international levels.5 Indigenous knowledge values, behaviors, and protocols have been suppressed (oftentimes appropriated for financial gain) through colonization processes implemented by governments, churches, and other institutions.6–8 For example, the US federal government passed the Code of Indian Offenses in 1883, prohibiting Indigenous peoples from the right to perform cultural and traditional ceremonial practices, such as the ghost and sun dances. Both of these ceremonial practices involved the use of ceremonial tobacco.9,10 In Canada, ceremonial tobacco use and ceremonial practices were more broadly illegal under the Indian Act of 1885 and its associated amendments.8 However, commercial tobacco use was not illegal, contributing to the promotion of commercial tobacco use among First Nations (status and non-status) and Métis peoples.8,11 As a direct consequence of these policies, commercial tobacco products were introduced into ceremonial practices as a harmful and unsustainable replacement to sacred tobacco.1,8,11 The restrictions of cultural and ceremonial practices, including use of ceremonial tobacco, were finally lifted in the United States in 1978 and in 1951 in Canada.8,9
Among some Indigenous peoples, the modification, transformation, and commercialization of the Nicotiana tobacco plant belittle, disrespect, and complicate the understanding of these plants that are endemic to Turtle Island.12,13 The widespread availability of commercial tobacco products, the historical restrictions on ceremonial tobacco products, the tobacco industry’s exploitation of tribal sovereignty through tax-exempt tribal cigarette sales and heavy promotion at tribal enterprises, and the Industry’s targeted marketing of commercial tobacco products to Indigenous peoples have enabled frequent use and dependence among Indigenous communities, with concomitant and serious effects on the user’s health, and those exposed to second- and third-hand smoke. These forms of colonization tactics have complicated public health efforts aimed at reducing harms of commercial tobacco in Indigenous communities. Commercial tobacco and its derivatives represent a threat to physical health, spiritual health, and well-being for Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island.5 Today, Indigenous peoples of Turtle Island report the highest prevalence of cigarette smoking, with above 50% in many communities, and lowest quit rates of all groups.14–16 Consequently, high rates of cigarette smoking have led to higher rates of smoking-related disease morbidity and mortality in these communities.17
Because they aren’t affected by government pricing, as its all tax.
So, tabacco is tax free. I used to know smokers who would go to the reservations in Ontario and come back with cartons.
Damn
That is the impact, not the cause, the cause is colonisation and deliberate targeting and abuse of the Indigenous population.
Oh! Doy lol I should have picked up on that my fault! :) ty
According to my school people would just hand them out on the streets for you.
Man. Your citys drug dealers are so nice! And also so stupid. That’s not a sustainable business model at all.
I know old people who go to the mall, do a lap around the food court, get a free sample on a toothpick of all the fast food in the food court, and call it lunch. They never actually buy any.
They do that at Costco too. Costco has these humongous 15’ wide aisles yet there’s always someone finding a way to block it with their cart while they beg for a treat
When I was your age, people would give away expensive drugs for free on Halloween!
Which street specifically so I can avoid them?
What? Is it because teens can’t afford booze, cigarettes, and drugs anymore? Maybe they need to buy less Starbucks and avocado toast so they can party more.
This is a good trend I think. I hope they carry it on well into the rest of their lives.
Is it because teens can’t afford booze, cigarettes, and drugs anymore?
Per the article:
The decrease in drug usage during the pandemic was somewhat of a surprise to experts. With the lockdowns causing depression rates to rise dramatically, an increase in drugs and drinking wouldn’t have been too much of a shock. But as the biggest factor in drug use for young people is peer pressure, the lockdowns had the opposite effect.
“Drug use, particularly among adolescents, is typically a social event,” said Miech. “The social distancing policies during the pandemic were designed so that all teenagers and adolescents hardly interacted with anybody except their own immediate family.”
…
The continuing decline of teen drug, alcohol and tobacco usage is a positive sign that these industries no longer have the power they once did over the country’s youth. But a disturbing trend in pop culture shows that cigarettes could be sneakily making a comeback.
“I too see more and more smoking in the media and on these different shows I watch with my teenage daughter,” said Miech. “But fortunately, so far, it hasn’t actually translated into higher levels of cigarette smoking among adolescence.”
Somebody forget to hand them their bootstraps to pull up.
As soon as I get mine in the mail, I will help them look for theirs.
