US peak for marijuana use by non-college young adults

The US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) has published the results of its Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey of drug, alcohol and tobacco use in 2017. The survey data showed clear differences between trends in substance use for young adults in college and young adults in the same age group (19 to 22) who did not attend college.

The most notable finding concerned marijuana use. Daily, or near-daily, use of the substance by young adults not in college continued to increase, reaching its highest level ever at 13.2%. Based on that finding, marijuana use among non-college young adults is almost three times as high as that for collage-attending young adults.

Vaping marijuana appears to be higher among young adults not attending college than those attending college, with past-month vaping use at 7.8% and 5.2% respectively. Synthetic cannabinoids (K2/spice) use was higher among young adults not attending college than those attending college, with past-month use at 2.4% and 0.5% respectively. Vicodin use has dropped for both the college group and non-college group, with use recorded at 1.1% and 1.8% respectively.

Past-month alcohol use among college students was at 62%, compared to 56.4% for the non-college group. Also, more college students mixed alcohol with energy drinks than did non-college young adults, with annual mixed alcohol/energy drink consumption at 31.5% and 26.7% respectively.

Daily cigarette smoking was higher for the non-college group than the college group, with smoking at 14.4% and 2% respectively. Vaping nicotine was higher for the non-college group than the college group, with vaping at 7.9% and 6% respectively.