Cannabis, Psychedelics Use And Binge Drinking At All-Time High Among Adults, Teens Remain Stable, Fed Study Finds

Cannabis and psychedelics consumption continued on a long-term upward trajectory to reach all-time highs in 2022, according to a Monitoring the Future (MTF) study. Although teenage marijuana use showed a year-over-year decline per last summer’s survey. 

Past-year hallucinogen use reached a historically high prevalence among adults between 35 and 50. Marijuana use and vaping are also at their highest historic levels for this age group in 2022. 

Cannabis Consumption 

The latest MTF survey released on Thursday, found 2022 cannabis use among young adults between 19 and 30 hit 44% in 2022, while 28% of adults between 35 and 50 said they’d used cannabis in the last 12 months. 

The survey, conducted by the University of Michigan, reported that 29% of young adults said they consumed cannabis in the past month; 11% consumed it on a daily basis. The 35 to 50 group reported past-month cannabis use at 17% and daily consumption at 7%.

Vaping Marijuana And Nicotine 

The percentage of adults aged 19 to 30 years old who reported vaping marijuana in the past year has increased from 12% in 2017 to 21% in 2022, the highest levels reported since the measure was first added in 2017. This is a notable increase from the past year (19%) and five years ago (12%). The percentage of adults aged 19 to 30 years old who reported vaping nicotine in the past year also reached a historic high in 2022 (24%), nearly double the rate reported five years ago (14%).

Binge Drinking On The Rise

While binge drinking has generally declined for the past 10 years among younger adults, those between 35 and 50 in 2022 reported the highest prevalence of binge drinking ever recorded for this age group. This represents a significant past-year, five-year and 10-year increase, per the MTF study, conducted by the University of Michigan and funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH).  

“Substance use is not limited to teens and young adults, and these data help us understand how people use drugs across the lifespan,” said NIDA director, Nora Volkow, M.D. “Understanding these trends is a first step, and it is crucial that research continues to illuminate how substance use and related health impacts may change over time. We want to ensure that people from the earliest to the latest stages in adulthood are equipped with up-to-date knowledge to help inform decisions related to substance use.”

Data for the 2022 survey of adults were collected via online and paper surveys from April 2022 through October 2022. Researchers divided the data into two age groups to conduct trend analyses: 19 to 30 years old and 35 to 50 years old.

Marijuana Moment first reported these results.