Wednesday, August 12, 2026

Elevated use of cannabis, nicotine among U.S. adults continues into 2025  

National survey suggests that use of alcohol, cigarettes, and other substances remains low.

In 2025, adults in the United States reported using cannabis at or near record-high levels, continuing a long-term trend of increasing use. Nicotine vaping also remained high among young adults. These findings are based on the latest report from the Monitoring the Future (MTF) Longitudinal Panel Study, an annual examination of self-reported drug use in the U.S. among adults ages 19 to 65 supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) since its inception in 1976.

The panel study, conducted by investigators at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, showed that increased levels of cannabis and nicotine vaping and pouch use coincided with historically low rates of cigarette smoking and a decline in alcohol consumption, continuing patterns seen in recent years. Some results bucked trends, however, such as a slight increase in self-reported heroin use among young adults aged 19 to 30, marking the first significant uptick and highest level in about 10 years.

“It is reassuring to continue to see relatively low smoking rates and a continuing decline in alcohol use among adults. 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,” said Nora D. Volkow, M.D., director of NIH’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA).

The panel asked adults about their use of more than two dozen substances over different time periods, including the past 12 months and the past 30 days.

Among all adults, daily, past 30-day, and past 12-month cannabis use and cannabis vaping remained at or near all-time highs. Adults in early midlife (35 to 50 years old) reported significantly higher rates of daily cannabis use than last year, increasing from 6.6% in 2024 to 8.5% in 2025.

Nicotine vaping remained at or near all-time highs. Among young adults, past 30-day nicotine vaping tripled, and past 12-month nicotine vaping nearly doubled since 2017. Reported use of nicotine pouches over the past 12 months among all adults more than doubled since 2023 when the panel first included questions about these products.

The prevalence of cigarette smoking among all adults remained relatively low. Rates of cigarette smoking over the past 30 days ranged from 8.3% of young adults to 10.6% of adults in late midlife (55 to 65 years old). Among young adults, nearly all measures of drinking reached low levels, with past 12-month, past 30-day, and high-intensity drinking (defined as drinking 10 or more drinks in a row) all holding steady.

The report identified a small but significant increase in the prevalence of heroin use over the past year in young adults, rising from 0.2% in 2024 to 0.6% in 2025, which is under the all-time high of 0.7% in 2013. Likewise, nonmedical use of sleeping medications in the past 12 months for the same age group significantly increased from 2.0% in 2024 to 3.0% the following year.

Another significant change, also among young adults, was a decrease in psychedelics use over the past year, from 8.9% in 2024 to 7.2% in 2025. This decline follows what has been an increasing trend over the last decade.

“An advantage of studies like MTF is the ability to identify subtle shifts and trends over time, noting areas where additional resources are needed to help us head off potential escalations in drug use down the road,” said Megan Patrick, Ph.D., principal investigator of the MTF Longitudinal Panel Study at the University of Michigan.

To estimate drug prevalence levels among a nationally representative sample of U.S. high school graduates over the past 50 years, the MTF Longitudinal Panel Study has obtained data from more than 120,000 individuals who originally participated in the larger cross-sectional MTF survey as 12th graders. The panel surveys young adult participants every two years and midlife adult participants every five years.

The 2025 panel results are available online from the University of Michigan.

About the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA): NIDA is a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIDA supports most of the world’s research on the health aspects of drug use and addiction. The Institute carries out a large variety of programs to inform policy, improve practice, and advance addiction science. For more information about NIDA and its programs, visit www.nida.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

NIH…Turning Discovery Into Health^®