Drinking and drug use among middle-aged adults hit record highs last year. Rates of binge drinking, cannabis consumption, and use of hallucinogens all reached all-time highs in 2022, according to a new study from the University of Michigan.
The school’s Monitoring the Future Study (MTF) is an annual survey of substance use by adults ranging from 19-60 years old. It’s funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), which is part of the National Institutes of Health.
Researchers divided survey respondents into two groups: those 19-30 years old and those from 35-50 years old. Data was collected via both online and paper surveys. The results were surprising — and may have broader societal implications.
Binge Drinking
For adults aged 35-50, binge drinking — defined as having 5 or more drinks in a row within the past two weeks — reached 29.2%, the highest level ever recorded. (This statistic was first calculated in 2008.) That’s up more than six points from 2012, when only 22.8% of those in midlife reported binge drinking. Alcohol use in general is also very high among this group: 84.8% admitted drinking at some point over the past year.
By contrast, 30.5% of those aged 19-30 reported binge drinking. MTF researchers found that binge drinking, daily drinking and even drinking over the past 30 days have all declined among young adults over the past decade. Though they still have the edge on binging, middle-aged adults now outrank them in almost every drinking category:
Marijuana
Reports of past-year marijuana use (by both young and middle-aged adults) hit all-time highs. A record 27.9% of midlifers have used pot over the past year, up from 13.1% in 2012. A similar trend was seen for those had used in the past 30 days (from 7.3% in 2012 to 17.3% in 2022). And a growing number of midlife adults are getting high every day: the number of middle-aged adults who use cannabis daily has also doubled, from 3% in 2012 to 6.5% in 2022.
For those in the 19-30 age range, pot use also hit new peaks. Nearly 44% of young adults used cannabis in the past year, up from 28% in 2012. This group’s daily use also broke records, surging to 11% last year versus just 6% a decade ago. When it comes to smoking (or vaping, or ingesting) pot, young people outpace the middle-aged in nearly every category, including usage within the past 30 days.
Hallucinogens
“Hallucinogens” reported in this study included LSD, PCP, MDMA (or “molly”), and psilocybin (or “shrooms”). For those between the ages of 35-50, past-year use of hallucinogens hit a historic high of 4%, up from just 0.5% in 2012. Similarly, young adults reported using hallucinogens at a rate of 8% last year, up significantly from 3.4% in 2012.
“This increase was driven by hallucinogens other than LSD, the prevalence of which significantly increased from over the past 5 years [3.1% in 2017] and 10 years [2.9% rate in 2012) to 7% in 2022,” the researchers wrote. This shift may be explained by a growing body of research showing that LSD, psilocybin and other psychedelics can be effective in treating depression and anxiety.
Racial Differences
The study also analyzed results by race. When it comes to binge drinking, White and Hispanic drinkers far outranked their Black counterparts. This was true for both young and middle-aged users. In midlife, Black adults reported binge drinking at a lower level (17%) than both White (32.5%) and Hispanic (35.2%) adults. (A similar trend was discovered among young adults.) In fact, among midlife adults, increases in binge drinking over 1, 5, and 10-year periods occur in Whites only. More generally, white young adults reported the highest levels of alcohol use, binge drinking, and use of any drug besides marijuana.
With marijuana specifically, last year Black, white, and Hispanic adults reported similarly high prevalence of cannabis consumption. “For midlife adults ages 35-50, there were no significant differences by race/ethnicity in 2022,” the researchers wrote (though Black midlifers continue to have lower rates of consumption than White and/or Hispanic counterparts.
A similar pattern exists when it comes to hallucinogens. The study found that racial disparities exist in this category as well: “White and Hispanic young adults have the highest prevalence of using any drug other than marijuana in the past 12 months in 2022 (20.7% among Hispanic and 17.8% among White young adults,” the researchers wrote. “Black young adults had the lowest prevalence (8.3%) in 2022, and this has been true since this age group was first surveyed in 1988.”
The reasons for these disparities — as well as the rise in binge drinking, cannabis consumption, and use of hallucinogens — are unclear, though the results hold important implications. Whatever stigma may have existed around the use of drugs like mushrooms, LSD and MDMA appear to be lessening, as those drugs become more popular with both young and “old”.
And Dr. Joseph Palamar, an associate professor and substance use expert in the Department of Population Health at NYU Langone, found it especially notable that marijuana use among middle-aged adults is nearly the same as that reported by high school seniors. He told CNN: “It looks like we’re reaching a point in which parents and grandparents are almost as likely to smoke weed as the kids.”