Surge of Teen Vaping Levels Off, But Remains High as of Early 2020

*The following is excerpted from an online article posted on MedicalXpress.

Findings released today from the most recent Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey of substance use behaviors and related attitudes among teens in the United States indicate that levels of nicotine and marijuana vaping did not increase from 2019 to early 2020, although they remain high. The annual MTF survey is conducted by the University of Michigan's Institute for Social Research, Ann Arbor, and is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health.

In the four years since the survey began including questions on nicotine and marijuana vaping, the use of these substances among teens has increased to markedly high levels. From 2017 to 2019, the percentage of teenagers who said they vaped nicotine in the past 12 months roughly doubled for eighth-graders from 7.5% to 16.5%, for 10th graders from 15.8% to 30.7%, and for 12th graders from 18.8% to 35.3%. In 2020, the rates held steady at a respective 16.6%, 30.7%, and 34.5%. However, somewhat encouragingly, daily, or near-daily (20 occasions in the past 30 days), nicotine vaping declined among 10th and 12th graders from 2019 to 2020, by close to half—from 6.8% to 3.6% in 10th grade and from 11.6% to 5.3% in 12th grade.

"The rapid rise of teen nicotine vaping in recent years has been unprecedented and deeply concerning since we know that nicotine is highly addictive and can be delivered at high doses by vaping devices, which may also contain other toxic chemicals that may be harmful when inhaled," said NIDA Director Nora D. Volkow, M.D. "It is encouraging to see a leveling off of this trend though the rates still remain very high."

Source: MedicalXpress
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2020-12-surge-teen-vaping-high-early.html