Marijuana and hallucinogen use, binge drinking reached historic highs among adults 35 to 50.
NIH-funded study also shows younger adults reported marijuana, vaping, and hallucinogen use at or near historically high levels.
— from the National Institutes of Health website, August 2023.
I think that’s the goal of marijuana use. Historic highs. If we can reach those, that actually means we’re doing something right.
Hallucinogens, same thing. We’re aiming at historic highs.
I would not use the same term to describe binge drinking, however. Maybe ‘historic stupidity’ is closer to the truth. But the NIH seems to think there’s a similarity between binge drinking and marijuana smoking.
It makes me worry about the scientists at NIH, when they put those things in the same category.
Totally different outcomes, in my experience. (Yes, I do have the necessary experience.) Totally different outcomes.
I’ve become interested in the NIH lately. I never knew they existed, prior to the pandemic. Sometimes ignorance is bliss.
But now, that we know they exist, we have another source of information for humor columns.
From the NIH survey, conducted by scientists at the University of Michigan:
Past-year use of marijuana and hallucinogens by adults 35 to 50 years old continued a long-term upward trajectory to reach all-time highs in 2022, according to the Monitoring the Future (MTF) panel study, an annual survey of substance use behaviors and attitudes of adults 19 to 60 years old…
While binge drinking has generally declined for the past 10 years among younger adults, adults aged 35 to 50 in 2022 reported the highest prevalence of binge drinking ever recorded for this age group, which also represents a significant past-year, five-year, and 10-year increase.
This gives me hope for the future, which is the thing the MTF scientists are monitoring. ‘Monitoring the Future’. While the 35 to 50 year olds might be ruining their livers, and their marriages, at an unprecedented rate, younger people are leaning more heavily on marijuana, and less on alcohol. Apparently.
While people on my age group are more prone to act stupid, than ever before, the young people are getting high. Hope for the future.
Which is not to suggest that getting high, regularly, on marijuana is necessarily helpful to your marriage. (Ask me how I know.) But binge drinking makes you look and act stupid, and can get really old after a couple of weeks. Or months. Or years.
For a long time, though, binge drinking was the only legal option in Colorado. Now that marijuana is available at downtown dispensaries, Colorado is presumably acting a little less stupid.
The scientists — who are themselves presumably in the 35 to 50 age range — did not use the word “stupid” in their report. They’re scientists, not humor columnists. But also, they might be binge drinkers, or have friends who are binge drinkers… and they might be overly sensitive.
It would be encouraging to learn that the MTF scientists are getting high, instead of binge drinking.
But probably, they aren’t allowed to talk about themselves. Just about the rest of us.