Substance use by middle and high school students has decreased significantly in the last few years; however, with an increase in both marijuana use and in the popularity of vaping, concerns are on the rise.
The 2017 Monitoring the Future study surveyed about 45,000 students and found that nearly 28% of seniors said they vaped in the year leading up to the survey; 18.8% of seniors reported vaping nicotine, 9.5% said they were vaping marijuana and 20.6% reported vaping "just flavoring." In the younger grades, past-year vaping was reported by 23.9% of sophomore students and 13.3% of eighth-graders.
"There is a substantial number of eighth-graders vaping nicotine," Dr. Lopez of the National Institute on Drug Abuse said. "The majority think they are (just) taking in flavoring. This is concerning because it is creating a smoking behavior that could lead to other smoking-type behaviors," Dr. Lopez concluded.
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