Wanjiru Waweru, Jadetimes News
W. Waweru is a Jadetimes News Reporter Covering Health News
New York City, New York – Teen drug users have not rebounded from their decrease during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the results from an enormous annual national survey published Tuesday, December 18.
About two-thirds of 12th-grade participants this year reported they had not used any substances including alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes, or e-cigarettes in the previous 30 days. That leads to the lead proportion declining since the survey that began investigating abstinence in 2017.
Along with 10th-grade participants, 80% of them reported that they also use any substances which upgraded another survey, especially, for 8th-grade participants, 90% of them did not use any of them, a similar result as published in the previous survey.
The only significant upgrade occurred in the nicotine pouches. About 6% of 12th-grade participants reported that they interacted with these substances in the previous year, an increase from about 3% in 2023.
According to Spectrum News, “the federally funded Monitoring the Future survey has been operating since 1975. This year’s findings are based on responses from about 24,000 students in grades 8, 10, and 12 in schools nationwide. The survey is ‘one of the best, if not the best’ source of national data for substance use by teens, said Noah Kreski, a Columbia University researcher who has studied teen drug use.”
Early in the pandemic, students were told not to attend school and avoid social gatherings. They were at home, under their parents’ roof. Alcohol and drugs of all forms of substances decreased due to experimentation approaches with friends that peer pressure spurred, according to health experts.
Spectrum News stated that “but marijuana use wasn't falling before the pandemic. And vaping was on the upswing. It was only during the pandemic that those two saw enduring declines, too.”
Some health experts noted that the pandemic lockdown had a dark impact.
Miech confirmed that many teens who used e-cigarettes or other drug substances as an experiment since the ninth grade, sometimes due to older adolescents are repeating the same. However, the kids who were ninth graders during the lockdowns never engaged in these toxic habits and did not have the chance to adapt to the negative impact on their peers.
“The pandemic stopped the cycle of new kids coming in and being recruited to drug use,” said Miech.
Mental health could lead to be a factor. It became increased evidence for early signs of depression and anxiety in children after the pandemic. “Depression is often associated with substance use, but some people with depression and anxiety are very wary of messing with drugs,” said Duncan Clark, a University of Pittsburgh psychiatrist who studied substance use in children.
“Some teens with anxiety are worried about the effects of substances. They may also be socially inhibited and have less opportunity to use drugs," said Clark. "It's a complicated relationship.”
