Survey Finds Marijuana Use Soared Among College Students, While Alcohol Use Dropped

Drug use trends among young adults have shifted dramatically in recent years, with 44% of college students reporting past-year marijuana use in 2020, according to the2020 Monitoring the Future (MTF) study issued yesterday. Marijuana use was similar among young adults not enrolled in college, with 43% reporting past-year use.“The pandemic has caused fundamental changes in the daily lives of teens and adults,” John E. Schulenberg, Ph.D., of the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research and colleagues wrote. “This endemic disruption is likely to affect substance use, and MTF is uniquely designed to examin e such potential period effects and quite likely lasting cohort effects.”Since 1980, the MTF study has annually tracked substance use among college students and noncollege adults aged 19 to 22. Data for 2020 were collected between March 2020 —when much of the nation began pandemic lockdowns and virtual school—and November 2020. The 2020 results are based on the online responses of 1,550 college-aged adults.The study revealed that past-year use of hallucinogens —including LSD, psilocybin, mushrooms, and other psychedelic substances—had also significantly increased among college students, from 5% in 2019 to nearly 9% in 2020. Among noncollege adults, past-year hallucinogen use remained consistent at around 10% in 2020, compared with 8% the previous year .College students reported significantly lower alcohol use on several key measures in 2020, compared ...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: alcohol binge drinking college Elie Auon hallucinogens marijuana Monitoring the Future pandemic youth Source Type: research