Most US teens are abstaining from drinking, smoking and marijuana, survey says
Teen drug use hasn’t rebounded from its drop during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic
NEW YORK (AP) — Teen drug use hasn't rebounded from its drop during the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the results from a large annual national survey released Tuesday.
About two-thirds of 12th graders this year said they hadn’t used alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes or e-cigarettes in the previous 30 days. That’s the largest proportion abstaining since the annual survey started measuring abstinence in 2017.
Among 10th graders, 80% said they hadn’t used any of those substances recently, another record. Among 8th graders, 90% didn’t use any of them, the same as was reported in the previous survey.
The only significant increase occurred in nicotine pouches. About 6% of 12th graders saying they’d used them in the previous year, up from about 3% in 2023.
