HEALTHY KIDS: Report shows teen substance numbers are declining compared to a decade ago

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO) -- A USAFacts report shows that teen substance use generally declined from 2011 to 2021. However, some categories are gaining in popularity and show more girls using substances than boys.

"You see this overall decline," says Nate Johnold, the marketing manager at USAFacts. "Within that you can see the trends emerge like females over males for some of these substances. But that overall decline is worth noting and the CDC notes it as well." 

According to the USAFacts report, it shows an across-the-board decline in teens smoking, drinking, and doing drugs. But with that, it also shows that teen girls are participating in these substances at a higher rate.

"The trends emerging are that teen girls are drinking more, vaping more, doing more illicit drugs, using more pain killers, and smoking more marijuana than their male counterparts," says Johnold.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sends out a survey every two years to high school students to track behaviors that may lead to poor health.

"This most recent survey that was released found that teens are trying alcohol, some drugs, and other substances overall less than they did a decade ago," says Johnold. "For the most part, trends are going down for teen substance abuse."

Johnold says cigarette use is down in both high school boys and girls, as well as marijuana and vaping.

"It peaked in 2019," says Johnold. "Around 50% of both teen boys and girls reporting using an electronic vapor product, also known as vaping. But those have declined, in 2021 they are down over 10 percent for girls down to 40.9% and down to 32.1% for teen boys." 

According to the report, in 2021, 22.7% of teenagers reported drinking alcohol at least once during the 30 days before the survey. 26.8% of female students and 18.8% of male students. In 2011, these numbers were 37.9% for girls and 39.5% for boys.