What the 2025 Monitoring the Future Survey Found

The 2025 Monitoring the Future Longitudinal Panel Study found that cannabis use among U.S. adults aged 19 to 65 remained at or near record highs, extending a long-term rise. The annual survey, backed by the National Institutes of Health and run by University of Michigan investigators, has tracked self-reported substance use since 1976 and now draws on more than 120,000 individuals.

Daily cannabis use among adults aged 35 to 50 increased significantly, rising from 6.6% in 2024 to 8.5% in 2025. Nicotine vaping also stayed near all-time highs: among young adults, past-30-day vaping has tripled since 2017, and past-12-month use has nearly doubled. Reported nicotine pouch use among all adults more than doubled since 2023, the first year the survey included questions about those products.

Those patterns appeared alongside historically low cigarette smoking and declining alcohol consumption. But the report also flagged less reassuring changes among young adults: past-year heroin use rose from 0.2% in 2024 to 0.6% in 2025, the first significant uptick in about a decade, while nonmedical use of sleeping medications increased from 2.0% to 3.0%. Psychedelic use moved the other way, falling from 8.9% to 7.2% after a decade of increases.

The Age and Product Shifts Behind the Numbers

A product-level substitution, not a simple decline

The low cigarette figures do not mean nicotine use has collapsed; it has shifted form. Past-30-day cigarette smoking ranged from 8.3% among young adults to 10.6% among adults aged 55 to 65, while nicotine vaping remained at or near record levels and pouch use more than doubled since the survey began tracking it in 2023. Because pouches are newly measured, older comparisons likely understate the full nicotine picture. The data support the interpretation that users are moving toward non-combustible products, though the survey cannot prove a direct causal substitution.

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The 35-to-50 cannabis rise is the clearest adult shift

The jump in daily cannabis use among adults in early midlife, from 6.6% to 8.5% in one year, matters because it is not confined to a traditionally youth-focused trend. It suggests that near-daily use is becoming more embedded in working-age life, which raises distinct questions for primary care, workplace health and family settings. The finding is a self-reported single-year change, so it is too early to call it a permanent reset, but it is the largest age-specific movement highlighted in this year's report.

Young adults show persistence, one blip and one reversal

For adults aged 19 to 30, nicotine vaping remained high and drinking measures stayed low. The rise in reported heroin use, from 0.2% to 0.6%, is statistically notable but small in absolute terms and still below the 2013 peak of 0.7%. A 0.4 percentage-point change can look dramatic on a percentage basis while representing a fragile estimate, so next waves will be important in determining whether it is noise or a turning point. The psychedelics decline, from 8.9% to 7.2%, is also a single-year reversal of a decade-long trend and should be read cautiously rather than as proof that use has peaked.

What the 2025 Trends Mean for Screening and Prevention

  • Update adult screening beyond cigarettes. With nicotine pouch use more than doubling since 2023 and young-adult vaping tripling since 2017, clinicians should ask explicitly about pouches and vapes rather than recording only cigarette smoking.
  • Treat cannabis as a midlife health issue. Daily use among 35-to-50-year-olds rose from 6.6% to 8.5% in one year, so routine primary-care visits for that age group should include cannabis-specific questions, not only alcohol or tobacco screens.
  • Use the young-adult heroin increase as a planning prompt, not a national alarm. The 0.2% to 0.6% rise is the first significant uptick in about ten years; local health officials should compare regional data before adjusting harm-reduction services, but the absolute prevalence remains low.
  • Do not overinterpret the psychedelics decline. Past-year use among 19-to-30-year-olds fell from 8.9% to 7.2% after a decade of increases; one year does not establish a durable trend, but prevention programs should revisit their assumptions rather than assume continued growth.