Research & Resources

Adolescent Drug Use Before and During COVID-19 Social Distancing

Adolescent Drug Use Before and During COVID-19 Social Distancing
In this study, researchers queried 582 12th grade students from the Monitoring the Future survey in early 2020 about the availability of marijuana and alcohol, one month before social distancing policies began, and again after social distancing policies were implemented (summer of 2020). Perceived availability of marijuana and alcohol declined across the two survey waves at the largest levels ever recorded in the 46 years of the Monitoring the Future study. Despite these declines, prevalence levels did not significantly change for marijuana use in the past 30 days or for binge drinking in the past two weeks. Lack of accompanying reductions in prevalence for marijuana and binge drinking demonstrates the substantial challenges facing a supply-side approach to the reduction of adolescent use of these substances.
This paper, “Adolescent drug use before and during U.S. national COVID-19 social distancing policies,” was funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.
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