(WWJ) It is a good news/bad news situation regarding the habits of American teenagers.
A new report about teen drug use shows the number of kids who are not doing drugs, drinking alcohol or smoking has remained at historically high levels — while the number of teens drinking energy drinks is skyrocketing.
Released Wednesday, the Monitoring the Future study from the University of Michigan — which looks at drug use behaviors and attitudes among 8th, 10th and 12th graders — shows more teens are drinking energy drinks, and more often.
Speaking live on WWJ Newsradio 950, lead research professor Richard Miech said the use of energy drinks has been trending up for the past decade.
"Well, in 10th grade we saw a significant increase where 20% of teens are using energy drinks...using them daily, actually. And we see that among 12th graders nearly 23% in 2025 are reporting that they're using energy drinks daily." Miech said.
Concerns for teens drinking energy drinks center on high caffeine/sugar causing loss of sleep, anxiety, heart issues, dehydration, jitteriness, digestive problems, and potential dependency, harming their developing cardiovascular and nervous systems. Some of these drinks have even linked to seizures or cardiac arrest in rare cases.
In more positive news, Miech said the survey found teen use of the most common drugs has not rebounded after the large decline during the COVID-19 pandemic, even though many thought it would.
While vaping has been a growing concern in recent years, Miech said nicotine vaping remained pretty much stable among all grades surveyed.
"From 2017 to 2019, we saw huge increases in the prevalence of teen vaping; some of the largest increases we've seen for any drug in the 50 years of the study," he said. "But since the pandemic, in 2021 and afterwards, teen vaping has been dropping."
>>LISTEN THE THE FULL INTERVIEW
Complete results of the study are available to the public at this link.