After a drop-off during the height of the pandemic, the National Institutes of Health says there was an explosion in use of marijuana and hallucinogens in 2021.
In fact, according to the NIH’s annual “Monitoring the Future” study, use of both substances reached the highest levels ever recorded since the study began monitoring it in 1988.
The study observed that 11% of young adults in 2021 said they used marijuana daily, compared to 8% who said so in 2016 and 6% in 2011.
As for hallucinogens — “LSD, MDMA, mescaline, peyote, ‘shrooms’ or psilocybin, and PCP,” as defined by the agency — 8% of young adults reported past-year hallucinogen use in 2021. By comparison, in 2011 only 3% reported use in that past year.
Alcohol remained the most popular substance to abuse for subjects in the study’s 19- to 30-year-old target demographic, with binge-drinking making a rebound after COVID 2020, where it was observed to be at a historic low.
In fact, what the agency labels “high intensity drinking,” that is having 10 or more drinks in a row in the past two weeks, “reached its highest level ever recorded since first measured in 2005.”
Vaping nicotine also bounced back from 2020, according to the study, proving a victory lap by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in that year was premature.