For the past 20 years, I have turned to the Monitoring the Future (MTF) study to see what the national trends are with adolescent substance use from one year to the next. I’ve seen a lot of trends with different substances over the years – trends that primarily show a decrease in use while other trends have raised some concerns.

I recently read the summary of the 2018 Monitoring the Future study and I must say…I was alarmed. I’ve never read a summary of a MTF survey that raised concerns as this one did. 

Increases in adolescent vaping from 2017 to 2018 were the largest ever recorded in the past 43 years for any adolescent substance use outcome in the U.S. and threatens to reverse some of the progress made in reducing cigarette smoking among adolescents over the past two plus decades!

Read my summary of the study's findings on vaping and I'll bet you will be concerned, too. We've got some important prevention work ahead of us...