According to a major national survey conducted by the University of Michigan, the consumption of vapes and cannabis by young adults reached unprecedented levels last year.
The survey revealed that 19% of young adults reported using nicotine vapes in the previous 30 days, the highest rate since this question was introduced in 2017, marking a more than threefold increase. Meanwhile, 29% of young adults aged 19 to 30 admitted to cannabis use in the past month, slightly below the previous year’s peak of 30%. Additionally, a record 12% reported using cannabis daily.
The Monitoring the Future survey, an annual project funded by the National Institutes of Health, collects data from approximately 20,000 Americans aged 19 to 65. This year’s findings paint a complicated picture of substance use trends in the U.S., according to Nora Volkow, director of the 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 stated 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.”
Alcohol remains the most widely consumed substance among adults of all ages, with about 60% of young adults and those aged 35 to 50 reporting alcohol use in the last month. However, overall alcohol consumption continues to decline.
Another encouraging trend, noted by Volkow, is the decreasing popularity of cigarettes, with only 8% of young adults reporting use in the past month. The survey authors wrote, “Cigarette smoking among young adults has been declining steadily since 2004, but the rate of decline may be plateauing.” The survey began asking about nicotine pouches like Zyn in 2023, and since then, use among young adults over the past year has more than doubled from 5% to 13%. (The survey did not inquire about pouch use in the past 30 days.)
The rise in nicotine pouch use raises concerns, especially following the Food and Drug Administration’s recent approval of new nicotine pouch flavors and its June decision to permit Zyn pouches to be marketed as lower-risk than cigarettes, stated Tim McAfee, previously with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Office of Smoking and Health, via email.
“Tobacco companies use FDA harm reduction claims to help them in their marketing not just to current cigarette smokers, but to help open new markets appealing to people not currently smoking,” McAfee commented.
Additional findings include a slight increase in heroin use among young adults, from 0.2% in 2024 to 0.6% in 2025, and a reduction in psychedelic use, from 9% to 7%.
These vaping findings emerge amid contentious actions by the Trump administration, which some critics argue may boost underage access to enticing fruit-flavored vapes. This spring, the FDA approved fruit-flavored vapes for the first time, although these products include age-restriction technology to prevent use by those under 21. Soon after, the agency announced it would not prioritize enforcement against unauthorized fruit-flavored vapes already on the market under certain conditions.
While e-cigarettes can be beneficial for smokers seeking safer alternatives, they pose a significant risk for young people who may develop nicotine addiction after starting with vapes, stated Stefanie Gratale, an assistant professor at Rutgers School of Public Health specializing in tobacco control.
“It’s difficult to pinpoint one cause for observed trends, but access to unauthorized flavored e-cigarette products, difficulty in enforcing regulations, and competing priorities in siloed regulatory approaches at state and federal levels can all play a role,” Gratale noted via email. “Taken together, the new findings give us pause and reflect a need to think intentionally about how public messaging and policy can work together to communicate the dangers of individual products and the spectrum of risks across products in order to best protect young people.”
McAfee emphasized that despite historically low cigarette use, “[h]undreds of thousands of Americans are still dying from smoking-related diseases. This survey provides new evidence that the industry’s ‘harm reduction’ marketing claims are not holding up in the real world.”
STAT’s coverage of chronic health issues is supported by a grant from Bloomberg Philanthropies. Our financial supporters are not involved in any decisions about our journalism.
