Study: Marijuana use among college-age adults reached an all-time high in 2020

By Maureen Meehan

Marijuana use among college students and non-college peers continued to rise in 2020, according to survey results from the 2020 Monitoring the Future (MTF) panel study reported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

This represents the highest marijuana use since the 1980s.

Photo by Alexis Brown via Unsplash

The children are alright

The survey also found that marijuana and nicotine vaping slowed down in 2020 after reporting sharp increases every year since 2017 for both college students and non-college peers. One might conclude that cannabis vaporizing decreased as the vaporizing crisis hit nationwide and health officials found undisclosed additives and cutting agents like vitamin E acetate in cannabis concentrates.

“That’s when I stopped vaping. I haven’t and probably won’t come back to it, ”one Ohio college student told Benzinga, not wanting her name to be used as cannabis is still illegal in Buckeye State.

Psychedelics on the rise, alcohol consumption is falling

Among college students in particular, there was also a significant increase in annual hallucinogen use and a significant and significant decrease in current alcohol use between 2019 and 2020.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has dramatically changed the way young people interact with one another and provides an opportunity for us to examine whether these changes have changed drug use behavior,” said NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow, MD

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“For the future, it will be crucial to examine how and when different substances are consumed in this young population and what effects these changes have over time.”

NIDA, part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), funded the MTF study, which has been tracking substance use by college students and adults ages 19-22 annually since 1980. The survey is conducted annually by scientists from the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, Ann Arbor. The 2020 survey, based on responses collected online from 1,550 college-age adults between March 20, 2020 and November 30, 2020, found the following key findings:

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Marijuana use reached its highest level in over three and a half decades in 2020.

44% of college students reported using weed in 2020 compared to 38% in 2015 – a significant increase. Among young adults out of college, annual marijuana use remained at 43% in 2020, essentially the same as in 2018 and 2019.

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In contrast, and noteworthy, there have been no similar increases and record highs in marijuana use among 12th students in recent years. Marijuana Legalization Acts are not associated with increased use among high school students.

Cigarette smoking is on the decline, with only 4% of college students and 13% of non-college respondents saying they smoked in the past month.

Non-medical use of amphetamines and opioid users continued to decline among college students and non-college colleagues.

This article originally appeared on Benzinga and was republished with permission.