According to the findings of the Monitoring the Future survey carried out by researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and funded by the U.S. National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), substance use among adolescents has been staying at lower levels for the fourth year in a row after declining significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The survey is administered every year to U.S. students in eighth, 10th, and 12th grades who self-report their substance use behaviours, while the results are released the same year the data are collected. Moreover, the survey results demonstrated that the use of nearly all measured substances decreased significantly between 2020 and 2021, after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a phenomenon that was attributed to school closures and social distancing. Subsequently, in 2022 and 2023, most reported substance use among U.S. teens was maintained at these lowered levels, with similar trends and some decreases in substance use found in 2024.

“This trend in the reduction of substance use among teenagers is unprecedented,” said Nora Volkow, director of NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), in a released statement. “We must continue to investigate factors that have contributed to this lowered risk of substance use to tailor interventions to support the continuation of this trend.”

It was also found that abstaining from all substances, including alcohol and nicotine in the past 30 days remained stable for eighth graders, with 89.5% of them reporting abstaining from the use of these drugs in the past 30 days prior to the survey. In addition, it increased for the two older grades, with 80.2% of 10th graders reporting abstaining from any use of marijuana, alcohol, and nicotine over the past 30 days (compared to 76.9% in 2023) and 67.1% of 12th graders reporting abstaining from use of substances in the past 30 days (compared to 62.6% in 2023).

“Kids who were in eighth grade at the start of the pandemic will be graduating from high school this year, and this unique cohort has ushered in the lowest rates of substance use we’ve seen in decades,” said Richard Miech, team lead of the Monitoring the Future survey at the University of Michigan. “Even as the drugs, culture, and landscape continue to evolve in future years, the Monitoring the Future survey will continue to nimbly adapt to measure and report on these trends – just as it has done for the past 50 years.”