Prevalence of Substance Use Among Young People in the US by Race/Ethnicity

"• In 12th grade, annual prevalence of marijuana use differed by only five points across the racial/ethnic groups, with levels highest for White students (28%) compared to Hispanic (24%) and Black/African-American (23%) students. In the earlier grades, these racial/ethnic differences were smaller, with a maximum difference of 2% in 8th grade and 3% in 10th grade.

"• Both 30-day use of any illicit drug and of any illicit drug other than marijuana have similar prevalence levels across the three racial/ethnic groups. For Hispanic, Black/African American, and White 12th grade students, the prevalence levels of past 30-day use of any illicit drug in 2024 were 15%, 16%, and 18%, respectively. For the outcomes of any illicit drug other than marijuana, the corresponding prevalence levels were 3.1%, 4.6%, and 2.6%.

"• White 12th grade students had the highest 12-month prevalence levels of any illicit drug, marijuana, Delta-8, CBD, alcohol, been drunk, flavored alcoholic beverages, small cigars, vaping nicotine, vaping marijuana, nicotine pouches, creatine, snus, and sedatives.

"• Among the more common drugs with prevalence levels greater than 5%, Black/African American 12th grade students had the lowest levels of drug use in comparison to White and Hispanic 12th grade students, with the exceptions of delta-8 (they tied with Hispanic students for second-lowest at 11%) and vaping just flavoring (their level of 11% was highest).

"• Levels of drug use among Hispanic 12th grade students are usually between the levels of Black/African American and White students. Among drugs with prevalence levels greater than 5% the exceptions were any illicit drug other than marijuana (they ranked the highest at 7%) and delta-8 (they tied with Black/African American students for lowest level).

"• Levels of alcohol use were highest for White students (47%), followed by Hispanic students (40%), and Black/African American students (28%). This same relative ranking holds for been drunk, flavored alcoholic beverages, and alcoholic beverages containing caffeine.

"• Levels of nicotine use were also highest among White students, followed by Hispanic students and then Black/African American students. This ranking holds for past 12-month use of nicotine vaping, snus, and nicotine pouches (for which the 10% prevalence for White students was substantially higher than the 3% level for Hispanic students and the 2% level of Black/African American students."