Sample Data Findings from Surveys Measuring Use of Drugs By Americans, 1975-2025
with reference links
my references:
the University of Michigan Monitoring The Future Report 2024
age 12-18 https://monitoringthefuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/mtf2025.pdf
age 19-64 https://monitoringthefuture.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/mtfpanel2025.pdf
Monitoring The Future is the longest running, most comprehensive survey report of trends in use of substances- prohibited, controlled, and legal- by Americans. Their annual reports of back to 1975, and all of them are archived online on this page https://monitoringthefuture.org/results/annual-reports/
US government Human Health and Services department SAMHSA NSDUH (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency, National Survey of Drug Use and Health) reports are also online.
The 2024 report is here. https://www.samhsa.gov/data/sites/default/files/reports/rpt56287/2024-nsduh-annual-national-report.pdf
This survey has not been around as long as the MTF report- iirc it only goes back to 1992. Both reports have gotten considerably more detailed in recent years- most notably in regard to prescription pill use. The SAMHSA survey used to lump all of the pills that were subject to “unauthorized use” into the same category- be they opioids, amphetamines, barbiturates, benzodiazepines, etc. More recently, they’ve gotten more specific, which definitely helps to clarify the situation. The MTF report is even more detailed, with statistics and graphs estimating use for separate prescription meds, ie., Vicodin, Xanax, Adderall, etc. Note that this is unauthorized or diverted use.
The most important fact I’m able to infer is that while diversion is present, it is no longer the massive script mill industry that it was 20 years ago. There isn’t enough of it to require a market. Most of that reported use is “sharing with friends” by people with prescriptions- and frankly, that’s such a low priority for US law enforcement that the only way they’d learn of it would be in the case of a medical emergency related to overdose, allergic reaction, heart attack or stroke- rare possibilities, especially in the case of young people, but not unknown. That’s the real risk of sharing meds, not getting busted. In any case, in the market sense it’s insignificant. Even if a few people might be selling their pill prescription, they are not trafficking in 10,000 pills, they’re selling fewer than 100.
Credit to the DEA, who may have arguably over-restricted the access, but they did it it quickly and got efficient compliance. And there’s now a central database for all controlled substance prescriptions (with the exception of California, which is insistent on using its own, very rigorous system of accountability; and Missouri, who likely have a similarly close State system of accountability. The DEA could have had the funding to create a central database over 20 years ago, but they needed the funding and the Congressional appropriation never made it out of committee.
The SAMHSA section of the HHS department is one of those that have been targeted by Trump administration cuts. https://behavehealth.com/blog/2025/3/27/rfk-jr-announces-samhsa-closure-addiction-treatment-and-behavioral-health-brace-for-big-changes-with-ahanbsp
https://rollcall.com/2025/11/06/addiction-mental-health-agency-eviscerated-under-trump/
(Note: these planned cuts have since been rescinded by the Department of Health and Human Services, at least as of now.)
Additionally, the US ONDCP (Office of Narcotic Drug Control Policy) has its own reports. It has a law enforcement/DoJ/CDC emphasis, but there are some pages that provide statistics related to the population of users of forbidden drugs https://www.whitehouse.gov/ondcp/information-resources/
This is an interesting graph from the most recent report- on initiation of substance use, 2002-2023 https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/dcdd/viz/16_1InitiationofSubstanceUse/16_1InitiationofSubstanceUs
some of the data points in the graph, for number of first-time users of a substance in a given year:
heroin- 2002, 112,000 users // 2023, 28,000 users
cocaine- 2002, 1,032,000 users // 2023, 470,000 users
opioid painkillers (may include use by prescription, not diversion)-
2002, 2,320,000 users // 2023, 1,380,000 users
methamphetamine
2002, 299,000 users // 2023, 78,000 users