Teen drug habits are changing for the better. With warnings.
Historically speaking, it's not a bad time to be a teenager's liver. Or the lungs.Regular alcohol, tobacco, and drug use among high school students has seen a long downward trend.In 2023, 46% of older adults said they had had a drink in the year before being surveyed; that's a steep decline from 88% in 1979, when the behavior peaked, according to the annual Monitoring the Future survey, a closely watched national survey of youth substance use. A similar downward trend was observed among eighth and tenth graders and for these three age groups regarding cigarette smoking. In 2023, only 15% of older adults reported having smoked a cigarette in their lifetime, compared to a peak of 76% in 1977.Illicit drug use among adolescents has remained low and fairly stable over the past t...