The D.A.R.E. generation is not okay: Use of pot and hallucinogens are at all-time highs among millennials and Gen Xers—and binge drinking, too

That’s according to a new, federally funded survey of substance abuse behaviors and attitudes among adults.

The number of midlife adults ages 35-50 surveyed who reported using marijuana in the past year continued on a long-term upward trajectory, peaking at 28% last year, according to the Monitoring the Future study, funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA). 

A decade ago, only 13% of older adults reported such use.

While only 4% of midlife adults reported using hallucinogens in the past year—LSD, MDMA, mescaline, peyote, mushrooms, psilocybin, or PCP—it’s still a rise from five and 10 years ago, when reported use was no greater than 1%.

Midlife adults also reported record-high levels of binge drinking (29%), following a trend of increase over the past decade, from 23%.

Amphetamine use also continued a decade-long increase.

“Substance use is not limited to teens and young adults, and these data help us understand how people use drugs across the lifespan,” said Dr. Nora Volkow, director of the NIDA, in a news release on the study. 

“We want to ensure that people from the earliest to the latest stages in adulthood are equipped with up-to-date knowledge to help inform decisions related to substance use.”

The report provides fodder for the argument that the once-popular D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program—rampant among U.S. public schools in the 1980’s and 1990’s—was an abject failure.

Decades of research, including some by the Justice Department, showed the program to be ineffective—and to potentially backfire, according to a 2017 piece in The Washington Post. A 1998 study found possible evidence of a “boomerang effect” among suburban children who had received the programming—they reported more drug use than students who hadn’t participated in D.A.R.E., perhaps due to a desire to challenge what authority figures had told them.

Substance use among young adults in 2022

Younger adults, ages 19-30, also reported increased use of substances in 2022, though some of their data showed more positive trends. Past-year marijuana use and daily marijuana use reached all-time highs among the group, as well as rates of past-year marijuana and nicotine vaping. Rates of past-year hallucinogen use also came in at five- and 10-year highs.

The good news: Use of cigarettes, sedatives, and non-medical use of opioids continued on a 10-year decline among all ages. Amphetamine use among 19- to 30-year-olds continued on a 10-year decline as well. And rates of daily drinking and binge drinking among young adults continued to decline, following a general downward trend over the past decade. 

The report comes as the number of Americans who drink appears to be dropping. In 2021, only 63% of Americans said they drank, according to Gallup—down from a peak of 71% in 1977.