"In 2022 past-year use of crack cocaine was at or near historic lows. Annual use levels among 8th, 10th, and 12th grade students were all less than 1%. Like cocaine, crack use dropped sharply from 1986—when its use was first measured—through 1991. Consistent with other illicit drugs, its prevalence then increased during the 1990s drug relapse, peaked in the late 1990s, and has since declined to today’s low levels of use.
"Questions on crack cocaine were first introduced into the survey in 1986, when information gathered routinely in MTF showed some indirect evidence of the rapid spread of crack cocaine. For example, we found that the proportion of all 12th graders reporting that they had ever smoked cocaine (as well as used it in the past year) more than doubled between 1983 and 1986, from 2.4% to 5.7%. In the same period, the proportion of those who said that they had both used cocaine during the prior year and at some time had been unable to stop using it when they tried doubled (from 0.4% to 0.8%). In addition, between 1984 and 1986, the proportion of 12th graders reporting daily use of cocaine also doubled (from 0.2% to 0.4%). We think it likely that the rapid advent of crack use during this period was reflected in all of these changes, though we did not yet have a direct measure of its use.
"All results from 2020 are from surveys completed before March 15, 2020, when national social distancing policies were implemented and the survey halted due to pandemic concerns."
Miech, R. A., Johnston, L. D., Patrick, M.E., O’Malley, P. M., Bachman, J. G., & Schulenberg, J. E., (2023). Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975–2022: Secondary school students. Monitoring the Future Monograph Series. Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan.
