SAFE GC Coalition: NIDA Reports Decrease in Underage Drinking

According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), reported use of alcohol remains low among U.S. teens according to the 2025 Monitoring the Future Survey. Monitoring the Future (MTF) is one of the nation’s most relied upon scientific sources of valid information on trends in use of licit and illicit psychoactive drugs by U.S. adolescents, college students, young adults, and adults up to age 60. MTF is conducted each year by researchers at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health and has been doing so since 1975.

The MTF survey is given annually to students in eighth, 10th, and 12th grades who self-report their substance use behaviors over various time periods, such as past 30 days, past 12 months, and lifetime. The survey also documents students’ perception of harm, disapproval of use, and perceived availability of drugs. The results were gathered from a national representative sample, and the data were statistically weighted to provide national numbers. The investigators collected 23,726 surveys from students enrolled across 270 public and private schools nationwide from February through June 2025. Students took the in-school survey via the web – either on tablets or on a computer.

Underage Drinking is down due to a variety of reasons, not the least of which are the efforts nationally and locally to address the issue through prevention, intervention and education efforts:

• Recognition that Prevention is science and research based
• Efforts by State & Federal Partners through grant funding
• Increasing law enforcement efforts
• Putting evidence-based curricula into classrooms
• Educating the public about possible alcohol related harms:

·The impact on brain development in youth

·Connections between breast, testicular & oral cancer

·The impact of alcohol outlet density increasing youth use

·Ads that youth see which increases their use by normalizing binge drinking

SAFE, Inc. is the only alcohol and substance abuse prevention, intervention and education agency in the City of Glen Cove. Its Coalition is conducting alcohol, tobacco and other drug use prevention awareness campaigns entitled, "Keeping Glen Cove SAFE," to educate and update the community regarding alcohol, prescription and illicit drug use and its consequences. The organization provides evidence-based prevention education to youth and adults in Glen Cove and also employs environmental strategies in collaboration with the Mayor’s office and police department to change societal norms about alcohol and substance use through policies that protect the public from alcohol and substance use. To learn more about the SAFE Glen Cove Coalition please follow us on www.facebook.com/safeglencovecoalition or visit SAFE’s website to learn more at www.safeglencove.org.

The National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA): NIDA is a component of the National Institutes of Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIDA supports most of the world’s research on the health aspects of drug use and addiction. The Institute carries out a large variety of programs to inform policy, improve practice, and advance addiction science. For more information about NIDA and its programs, visit www.nida.nih.gov.