Hallucinogen Use Among Young People in the US

"Hallucinogens

"The percentage of 12th grade students using hallucinogens in the past 12 months has varied little between a narrow window of 4% and 5% over the past decade and in 2024 was 4%. In 10th grade, a drop in use during the pandemic in 2021 has persisted, and the prevalence of past 12-month use in 2024 was 2%. In 8th grade, declines in use have plateaued since around 2014, in part because prevalence has hovered at 1% since that time and has little room to fall further.

"In 2024, the question text was modified to add “or psychedelic drugs” to the survey text, with the new question reading “On how many occasions (if any) have you used hallucinogens or psychedelic drugs (like PCP, mescaline, peyote, ‘shrooms’ or psilocybin)?” This change appears to have had little effect on prevalence estimates, which changed little in 2024 compared to 2023.

"Hallucinogen use followed the typical pattern of an increase during the 1990s relapse, followed by a gradual but inconsistent decline in the following years. Annual hallucinogen use peaked in 1996, which is a few years earlier than the peak for most other drugs. Current levels of annual hallucinogen use are less than half their peak in the 1990s.

"The two components of the hallucinogens class, LSD and hallucinogens other than LSD (i.e., mescaline, peyote, psilocybin, and PCP), generally followed the same pattern until a sharp decline in LSD use emerged after 1999.

"Hallucinogens Other Than LSD

"Hallucinogens other than LSD include mescaline, peyote, and PCP as well as psilocybin, or “shrooms”, which comprise a major component of this category. Use levels in 2024 did not significantly change in any of the three grades for lifetime, past 12-month, or past 30-day use.

"In all grades, 2024 levels of past 12-month use are about half of what they were in 2001, the peak level they had reached after the 1990s drug relapse.

"Prior to the 1990s relapse, use of hallucinogens other than LSD had declined precipitously in 12th grade from a record high of 9.4% in 1975 to a record low of 1.7% in 1992. During this time hallucinogens received substantial, negative media attention about the potential dangers of use such as “bad trips” and flashbacks. The increase that began in the 1990s may in part stem from 'generational forgetting', in which new youth cohorts have less exposure to people who have used the drug and media coverage subsides."