"Abstention from drug use is defined here as no past 30-day use of alcohol, marijuana, or nicotine by vaping or by cigarettes. Abstention levels in 2024 were at the highest recorded by the survey since it first started tracking this outcome in 2017. The percentage of students who abstained from drug use in 2024 was 67% in 12th grade (compared to 53% in 2017), 80% in 10th grade (compared to 69% in 2017), and 90% in 8th grade (compared to 87% in 2017). The increases from 2023 to 2024 were statistically significant in 12th and 10th grade.
"Whether the lowered levels of drug use after the pandemic would be long lasting has been a question with substantial policy and research implications. It is possible that the factors that disrupted and lowered drug use during the pandemic from 2020 to 2021 resulted in permanent change. This could occur if the pandemic disrupted both school/community peer groups that encourage drug use as well as the processes by which these groups perpetuate themselves by recruiting new members. Alternatively, substance use could have quickly rebounded to pre-pandemic levels when students returned to school buildings in 2022 and afterwards, if prepandemic patterns of social interaction and drug use rapidly re-established. The 2024 results indicate that the lowered levels of student drug use after the pandemic onset are lasting and, in fact, continue to drop even further."
Miech, R. A., Johnston, L. D., Patrick, M. E., & O'Malley, P. M. (2024). Monitoring the Future national survey results on drug use, 1975-2024: Overview and key findings for secondary school students. Monitoring the Future Monograph Series. Ann Arbor, MI: Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan.
