Since 1975, the Monitoring the Future study has annually surveyed substance use behaviors and attitudes among a nationally representative sample of teens. Participants self-report their drug use behaviors across various time periods, including lifetime, past year (12 months), past month (30 days), and other use frequencies depending on the substance type. Data for the 2023 panel study were collected via online and paper surveys from April 2023 through October 2023. Past-year use of cannabis and hallucinogens stayed at historically high levels in 2023 among adults aged 19 to 30 and 35 to 50, according to the latest findings from the Monitoring the Future survey. In contrast, past-year use of cigarettes remained at historically low levels in both adult groups.
- The National Institute on Drugs and Addiction¹ (NIDA) advances science on substance use and addiction to improve individual and public health.
- NIDA supports research tracking the emergence of new drugs into the unregulated drug supply, including via the National Drug Early Warning System (NDEWS), collaboration with other researchers and partners around the world.
- According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), approximately 2.5 million individuals in the U.S. are affected by opioid use disorders.
Over 115 million pills containing illicit fentanyl seized by law enforcement in 2023
Preventive Services Task Force recommendation(link is external) on pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for the prevention of HIV for those at increased risk, including people who inject drugs. In addition, emerging substances are usually not included in emergency department drug tests and are not routinely included in the toxicology tests used after a fatal overdose. The delay in this data means there is also a delay in understanding how widespread use of the drug is, why and how these drugs have their effects, and how to care for people who experience negative effects of those substances. Reported use for almost all measured substances decreased dramatically between 2020 and 2021, after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and related changes like school closures and social distancing.
- NIDA also supports research that is developing and testing approaches to prevent substance use and misuse studies investigating whether and how harm reduction methods may prevent, reverse, or reduce rates of overdose.
- From February through June 2024, the Monitoring the Future investigators collected 24,257 surveys from students enrolled across 272 public and private schools in the United States.
- NIDA-supported research leads to FDA approval of nalmefene nasal spray(link is external), which can be used to treat fentanyl overdose.
- 2001 — NIDA-supported animal research shows a single exposure to cocaine induces changes in brain cells that are very similar to long-term potentiation, a process that plays an important role in associating experiences with feelings and motivations.
Find More Resources on Emerging Drugs
In line with our values and policies, each Brookings publication represents the sole views of its author(s). 2020 — A study partially funded by NIDA finds why some people with HIV are able to maintain suppressed viral loads for years without ART. The study is chosen as a runner-up in Science magazine’s 2020 Breakthrough of the Year. 2019 — Researchers identify a brain receptor with anti-opioid activity, a discovery that opens the door to new way to improve opioid safety. Using this method, researchers are able to show that opioid receptors function in different cell locations depending on the type of opioid.
Fourteen (14) drugs are classified as Schedule V. One example of a Schedule V drugs are cough medicines with 100 to 200 ml of codeine per dose. There are 260 drugs classified as Schedule I. Some examples of Schedule I drugs include ecstasy, heroin, synthetic heroin, LSD, marijuana, and peyote. Fentanyl and methamphetamine are the most dangerous drug threats the United States has ever faced.
Topical Combination Treatment Significantly Reduces Skin Cancer Risk
The completed survey from 2022 is nationally representative and represents about 75% of the sample size of a typical year’s data collection. The Monitoring the Future investigators noted that schools opt-in to participate in the survey, and some schools that normally participate opted-out this year as they continued to operationally recover from the pandemic. All participating students took the survey via the web – either on tablets or on a computer – with between 95-99% of respondents taking the survey in-person in school. The researchers found that overdose deaths from stimulants other than cocaine almost tripled from 2015 to 2019.
In 2019, the survey involved about 42,500 8th-, 10th-, and 12th-graders in 396 public and private secondary schools nationwide. In 2020 about 11,800 students in 112 secondary schools participated in the study, with sample sizes of 3,161 in the 8th grade, 4,890 in the 10th grade, and 3,770 in the 12th grade. Drug overdose deaths are often linked to substance use disorders (SUD) and mental illness. Various jurisdictions across the country report these figures, reflecting the widespread impact. Accurate information on these deaths is vital for addressing and preventing future tragedies related to substance misuse.
Fostering the Next Generation of Addiction Scientists
2002 — NIDA-supported research leads to the FDA approval of buprenorphine and buprenorphine/naloxone, the first medications for opioid use disorder that can be prescribed in an office setting. 2000 — Researchers demonstrate that contingency management for cocaine use disorder can have long-lasting effects and serve as a valuable role in treating addictions. Patients in this study who received vouchers for having cocaine negative urine tests were more likely to have sustained cocaine abstinence during outpatient treatment than a comparative group that received incentives regardless of urine test results. NIDA-supported research identifies brain processes that increase the rewarding effects of cocaine the more a person uses it, a change thought to play an important role in the development of cocaine craving and addiction. Research supported by NIDA identifies a way for scientists to estimate how likely an opioid is to cause tolerance and have the potential to cause addiction.
What are emerging drugs?
Previous studies have found that American Indians/Alaska Natives also had the greatest increases in methamphetamine overdose deaths in recent years. Overdose deaths in the U.S. involving stimulants other than cocaine have risen sharply in recent years. Yet the increases in methamphetamine use and methamphetamine use disorder (MUD) have been much less dramatic. This suggests that the overdose risk among people who use methamphetamine has increased. The Institute studies or supports research on changes in the lab-made drug supply and how these emerging substances work in the brain, as well as their health effects and potential as therapeutic treatments. The annual sample for each grade is made up of roughly 16,000 students in 133 public and private schools, for a total of about 50,000 students in 420 public and private secondary schools.
NIDA researchers demonstrate the effectiveness of sublingual buprenorphine for the treatment of opioid use disorder. 1992 — NIDA-supported research isolates anandamide, a chemical in the brain that interacts with the active ingredient in cannabis, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). In addition, the researchers discover that anandamide also plays a role in other brain activities, such as pain relief, sedation, memory, and cognition. 1974 — Congress establishes NIDA as the federal focal point for biomedical research on the nature and extent of substance use and substance use disorders. Additionally, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) highlights that tobacco use affects about 12.5 percent of U.S. adults.
Adolescent Drug Abuse & Mental Health
Among Americans aged 12 years and older, 47.7 trends and statistics national institute on drug abuse nida million were current illegal drug users (used within the last 30 days) as of 2023. The 2023 Monitoring the Future data tables highlighting the survey results are available online from the University of Michigan. The Monitoring the Future survey is conducted by researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health.
