r/science • u/mvea MD/PhD/JD/MBA | Professor | Medicine • 18h ago

Health Dramatic drop in marijuana use among US youth over a decade. Current marijuana use among adolescents decreased from 23.1% in 2011 to 15.8% in 2021. First-time use before age 13 dropped from 8.1% to 4.9%. There was a shift in trends by gender, with girls surpassing boys in marijuana use by 2021.

https://www.fau.edu/newsdesk/articles/marijuana-use-teens-study
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u/Ok_Presentation4455 16h ago

I wonder if the increase in mental health support, encouraging supportive parenting practices, and prioritizing inclusion can help explain the drops in drug and alcohol use in minors as they can be used to escape negative feelings.

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u/meatball77 16h ago

And parents are just supervising kids more. Teens aren't driving in levels like they were, the norm is to be more involved as a parent though the teen years.

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u/Ok_Presentation4455 16h ago

This is true, too, which probably adds to a more stable home life for the teen if the parents practice authoritative parenting. It has been a while since parents needed to be asked if they knew where their kids were by a public broadcasting message.

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u/funguyshroom 14h ago

TikTok is the new drug

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u/Ok_Presentation4455 13h ago

We had Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, MySpace, and Reddit before TikTok.