In 2025, adults in the U.S. reported using cannabis at or near record-high levels, continuing a long-term trend of increasing use. Nicotine vaping also remained high among young adults.

That’s according to the Monitoring the Future Longitudinal Panel Study, an annual examination of self-reported drug use in U.S. adults 19-65.

The trends:

Those increases coincided with historically low rates of cigarette smoking and a decline in alcohol consumption, continuing patterns seen in recent years.
But there was a slight increase in heroin use among young adults 19-30, marking the first significant uptick and highest level in about 10 years.

The details:

Cannabis: Daily, past-month, and past-year cannabis use and vaping remained at or near all-time highs. Adults 35-50 reported significantly higher rates of daily cannabis use than last year (6.6% in 2024, 8.5% in 2025).
Nicotine Vaping: Nicotine vaping remained at or near all-time highs. Among young adults, past-month nicotine vaping tripled, and past-year nicotine vaping nearly doubled since 2017.
Nicotine Pouches: Use of nicotine pouches over the past 12 months among all adults more than doubled since 2023.
Cigarettes: The prevalence of cigarette smoking remained relatively low. Rates of past-month cigarette smoking ranged from 8.3% of young adults to 10.6% of adults 55-65.
Alcohol: Among young adults, nearly all measures of drinking reached low levels, with past-year, past-month, and high-intensity drinking all holding steady.
Heroin: There was a small but significant increase in past-year heroin use in young adults, rising from 0.2% in 2024 to 0.6% in 2025, which is under the all-time high of 0.7% in 2013.
Sleeping medications: Nonmedical use of sleeping medications in the past year also significantly increased among young adults, from 2% in 2024 to 3% in 2025.
Psychedelics: Psychedelic use in the past year decreased among young adults, from 8.9% in 2024 to 7.2% in 2025.