Neither alcohol nor cocaine: here’s what New York teens are increasingly consuming

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report last year on substance use among teens and found that those abusing drugs said they needed a fix to relax and escape worries. Just under half of respondents said they used alcohol while a whopping 84% reported using some form of marijuana. This is almost a complete reverse of the trends in the late 1990s.

While substance use among teenagers has declined in recent years nationwide it’s still prevalent enough that it is a perennial concern for parents and health authorities. The New York Post recently went out to talk to teens in the Big Apple about what are the drugs of choice among their peers.

Fake IDs are “for weed, not for alcohol”

Less than half of teens may say they drink alcohol but for one sophomore that spoke to the New York Post “nobody really drinks anymore,” she said. The teen feels that mobile phones are part of the reason as everyone is glued to their screens. “Online life has occupied leisure time so much that it’s curtailed … vices previous generations had growing up,” a teach explained.

Another high school teacher told the outlet that one doesn’t even hear kids talking about alcohol saying, “We don’t have any consequential issues with it.” Yet another Manhattan senior explained that fake IDs are used “for weed, not for alcohol,” if teens have them.

This is most likely because access to vaping products with nicotine and THC, the main psychoactive compound in cannabis, are far easier to get. “Liquor stores are less likely to sell to kids who look a certain age, whereas a smoke shop might not care that much,” the senior told the New York Post.

A junior told the outlet that “smoke shops honestly… they just don’t care.” Kids can also get weed at the deli near her school or via dealers on Instagram. Even if a smoke shop gets busted for selling to underage kids they just go to the newspaper stand another junior explained “because they don’t usually card.”

While vaping among middle school teens is on the rise nationwide among older teens it has declined significantly. Those teens are now consuming the substance through nicotine pouches, Zyn being the most popular brand, although technically one needs to be 21 in order to purchase it. Use of this method to consume nicotine has doubled since 2023.

Old-school cigarettes are also making a comeback among teens who want to look more mature. “Cigarettes have an almost Lana Del Rey-style old-fashioned appeal,” one student told the New York Post. Another said that some kids are smoking to imitate the “off-duty model” aesthetic of Kate Moss in the 1990s.

“Everyone is on some sort of amphetamines at private schools”

Legal use of drugs to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder shot up from 11% in 2021 to 14.6% in 2022 among teens according to the annual Monitoring the Future survey. The perception of one senior that spoke to the New York Post was that “Everyone is on some sort of amphetamines at private schools… Fifty percent of the kids at least.”

Some are using drugs such as Adderall to treat ADHD, but there are others who use it recreationally and the difference between the two uses can be blurry. “People like to snort Adderall just for the high,” said one junior.

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