Cannabis, hallucinogen use ‘historically high’ among adults in 2023

Key takeaways:

• Past-year cannabis and hallucinogen use stayed at record highs in adults aged 19 to 30 and 35 to 50 years in 2023.
• Meanwhile, cigarette use dropped to a new record low.

Among young adults aged 19 to 30 years and early midlife adults aged 35 to 50 years, past-year use of cannabis and hallucinogens remained at “historically high” levels in 2023, according to the Monitoring the Future Panel Study Annual Report.

On the contrary, past-year use of cigarettes remained at historically low levels in both groups.

“We have seen that people at different stages of adulthood are trending toward use of drugs like cannabis and psychedelics and away from tobacco cigarettes,” Nora D. Volkow, MD, director of NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse, said in a NIH press release.

“These findings underscore the urgent need for rigorous research on the potential risks and benefits of cannabis and hallucinogens — especially as new products continue to emerge.”

The Monitoring the Future study began in 1975. It is conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research and funded by grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

As part of the study, researchers survey approximately 20,000 individuals aged 18 to 65 years per year. They collect data from young adults biannually and midlife adults every 5 years. This allows the researchers to track drug use behavior and patterns over a lifetime as well as within the past year and month. Data from the 2023 panel were collected from April 2023 to October 2023.

Vaping, cannabis and hallucinogens

According to the report, the prevalence of vaping nicotine or cannabis within the past year increased among young adults over a period of 5 years but remained steady from the year before in early midlife adults. Long-term trends were not observable in the older age group, as the question was added to that group’s survey in 2019, according to the release.

Overall, in 2023, 42.4% of young adults reported cannabis use in the past year, 28.7% in the past month and 10% daily (defined as 20 or more occasions in the past month). In comparison, in 2013, 30.6% of young adults reported past-year cannabis use, 18.3% reported past-month use and 5.9% reported daily use in 2013.

Among early midlife adults, in 2023, 29.3% used cannabis within the past year, 19.2% used in the past month and 7.5% used daily. A decade prior in 2013, 14.4% of early midlife adults reported cannabis in the past year, 8.3% reported past-month use and 2.8% reported daily use.

Further, 22% of young adults reported vaping cannabis in the past year and 14% reported vaping cannabis within the past month, representing all-time study highs and an increase from 5 years ago, according to the report. Early midlife adults reported less yearly (9%) and daily (6%) usage in comparison.

For the first time, female young adults reported a greater prevalence of past-year cannabis use than their male counterparts in 2023. This reverse gender gap was not observed in early midlife adults, wherein men maintained a 10-year trend of greater prevalence of past-year cannabis use.

Concerning hallucinogens, a rising trend that began 5 years ago continued in both age groups, reaching 9% for young adults and 4% for early midlife adults in 2023. Participants reported using hallucinogens such as LSD, mescaline, peyote, shrooms or psilocybin and PCP.

Alcohol use

Alcohol was the most frequently used substance in 2023, according to the report. Among young adults, past-month and daily alcohol use continued to decline and binge drinking (defined as having five or more drinks in a row in the past 2 weeks) reached all-time lows. In early midlife adults, however, binge drinking increased from 5 and 10 years ago.

Specifically, among young adults, past-year alcohol use showed a slight upward trend over the past 5 years at 84%, but past-month drinking (65%), daily drinking (4%) and binge drinking (27%) remained at study lows and have decreased from 10 years ago.

In early midlife adults, 84% reported past-year alcohol use, which has not changed in the past 10 years. Past-month alcohol use (69%) and binge drinking (27%) increased slightly over the past 10 years, but daily drinking has decreased over the last 5 years and was at its lowest level ever recorded in 2023 (8%).

Reference:

• Cannabis and hallucinogen use among adults remained at historic highs in 2023. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/cannabis-hallucinogen-use-among-adults-remained-historic-highs-2023. Published Aug. 29, 2024. Accessed Sept. 6, 2024.