The use of drugs is a major problem in today’s society; many countries are trying to tackle the problem, especially the U.S. As we know that COVID-19 has drastically changed many people’s lifestyles, and it has also affected people mentally.
Drugs Use In Adolescents Has Decreased Significantly
A new survey shows that substance use by adolescents has decreased due to the COVID-19; the survey highlights that drugs use was reduced mainly in 8th, 10th, and 12th-grade students in the U.S. The survey also noted the biggest drop in drug use in one year since the survey was started in 1975. The survey shows that the most commonly used substances like alcohol, Marijuana, and vaped nicotine were less circulated and less consumed.
The survey was conducted by researchers from the University of Michigan and the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health-funded survey. There were many aspects apart from the decrease in drug use, such as the percentage drop in a particular substance, a decline in use in the age group, etc.
The previous surveys show an increase in vaping of tobacco and Marijuana in 2017, 2018, and 2019, and in the year 2020, the increment was back to normal. The survey was done to find out about the drug use and the mental health of the students, as there were no social meet-ups, no physical classes, and no playgrounds.
The survey notes that most of the students, regardless of their grade, felt anxiety issues, loneliness, disturbing sleeping patterns, boredom, etc.; these were the signs of negative mental health among the students, which should be taken seriously.
“We have never seen such dramatic decreases in drug use among teens in just a one-year period. These data are unprecedented and highlight one unexpected potential consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic, which caused seismic shifts in the day-to-day lives of adolescents,” said Nora Volkow, M.D., NIDA director. “Moving forward, it will be crucial to identify the pivotal elements of this past year that contributed to decreased drug use—whether related to drug availability, family involvement, differences in peer pressure, or other factors—and harness them to inform future prevention efforts.”
The survey is done annually and is released in the same year. For the survey of the year 2021, there were more than 32 thousand unique surveys that were collected, and they have the data of the 8th, 10th, and 12th. The survey was manually filled by the students and had the sections like drug use from the past 30 days, 1 year, and lifetime. The survey was collected from 319 schools in which some of the schools were public, and some were private schools in the United States.
The survey of the statistics of the survey shows that:
Alcohol: There was a significant drop in alcohol use among the 10th and 12th graders and was normal in the case of 8th graders.
- 8th graders: 17.2% reported using alcohol in the past year in 2021, remaining steady compared to 20.5% in 2020
- 10th graders: 28.5% reported using alcohol in the past year in 2021, a statistically significant decrease from 40.7% in 2020
- 12th graders: 46.5% reported using alcohol in the past year in 2021, a statistically significant reduction from 55.3% in 2020
Marijuana: There was a considerable drop in the use of Marijuana and some other similar substances in the 8th, 10th, and 12th-grade students.
- 8th graders: 7.1% reported using Marijuana in the past year in 2021, compared to 11.4% in 2020
- 10th graders: 17.3% reported using Marijuana in the past year in 2021, compared to 28.0% in 2020
- 12th graders: 30.5% reported using Marijuana in the past year in 2021, compared to 35.2% in 2020
A detailed report of the results is available online, which is published by the University of Michigan.
