Every ten years, the CDC (short for Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) publishes a report on the risky behaviors of young Americans. Drugs, sex, mental health: the review is as exhaustive and precise as possible. The 2011-2021 version is now availableet Vice dove into it in order to look for the most notable trends and developments.
Concerning the relationship with alcohol, the results are relatively positive: if, in 2011, nearly 4 out of 10 young people had consumed it in the thirty days preceding their participation in the survey (39% of women and 38% of men), this rate has dropped dramatically, especially among men (only 19% of whom have drunk alcohol in the past month). The decrease is less impressive among women, who are still 27%.
Young women are also bigger weed consumers than their male counterparts, we learn. And this is a first: until 2020, more men smoked it. But now, marijuana use (also down slightly) concerns 18% of young women and 14% of young men.
Mainly male decreases
Even hard drugs are less popular: in 2011, they affected 20% of men and 19% of women. These are still 15% to have already consumed it, against 12% of men. Opioids, considered apart from other drugs due to the crisis that has affected the United States in recent years, are experiencing relative stagnation.
Currently, 15% of young women and 10% of young men say they have tried opioids in their lifetime (rates drop to 8% and 4% if only the last thirty are considered). days, which is still quite huge).
For Kathleen Ethier, head of the CDC’s sector dedicated to the health and education of adolescents, and co-director of this study, the figures indicate that on the whole, young people make better decisions than their predecessors, probably because ‘they have been better educated on the subject of risky behaviour. The fact remains that young women reduced their consumption less, regardless of the substance observed, and that the causes of this phenomenon would most certainly benefit from being questioned closely.