Vaping and cannabis use among young US adults hit record highs

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Young adults’ use of vapes and cannabis hit all-time highs last year, according to the results of a large new national survey conducted at the University of Michigan.

The percentage of young adults who said they’d used nicotine vapes in the past 30 days reached the highest levels since the question was first added to the survey in 2017, more than tripling to 19%. For cannabis, 29% of young adults between the ages of 19-30 said they’d used the drug in the past 30 days — just slightly below the all-time high of 30% the previous year. A record high of 12% reported daily cannabis use.

The annual Monitoring the Future survey, which is supported by the National Institutes of Health, gathers data from about 20,000 Americans spanning the ages of 19 to 65. Overall, this year’s report presents a mixed picture of substance use trends in the U.S, according to Nora Volkow, director of NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

“It is reassuring to continue to see relatively low smoking rates and a continuing decline in alcohol use among adults,” Volkow said in a press release. “At the same time, rising rates of cannabis, nicotine, and certain other drug use warrant attention. Continued monitoring is vital for understanding the changing drug landscape so that we can develop effective interventions to support public health.”

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