CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — Alcohol use by Illinois teens was nearly double the national average, with 13.7% of Illinois students reporting they had imbibed during the previous 30 days compared with 6.9% of those across the U.S. The finding was among some troubling new trends in alcohol and drug use among Illinois teens reported in the recently released 2024 Illinois Youth Survey.
Conducted by the Center for Prevention Research and Development at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the biennial survey collects data on various health and social issues such as substance use, bullying and other problems among Illinois students in the eighth, 10th and 12th grades. The 2024 findings were based on a randomly drawn sample of more than 10,490 students at participating schools.
Although substance use among teens nationwide declined significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic due to lockdowns, school closures and other restrictions that curtailed teens’ access to peers and opportunities to use illicit substances, about 10% of the Illinois eighth graders surveyed reported acquiring liquor through home delivery services, said Doug Smith, the Center’s director and a professor of social work at the U. of I.
Photo by Becky Ponder
“This is a newer trend that started when retailers moved to online delivery during the pandemic,” Smith said. “It may be time to think about what regulatory approaches, if any, are needed to prevent kids from ordering alcohol online.”
Among the Illinois teens who reported using alcohol, 8% of the high-school seniors, 4% of the sophomores and 1% of the eighth-grade students reported binge drinking, the researchers found.
Additionally, some teens reported problems associated with marijuana and other drugs.
Smith said there have been “increasing reports of teens experiencing cyclical vomiting syndrome,” also called cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome, a condition that causes recurrent episodes of severe nausea, vomiting, dizziness and other symptoms. The condition is often associated with prolonged use of high-dose cannabis, according to the Cleveland Clinic’s website.
Heavy marijuana use — defined on the IYS as using cannabis on 20 or more occasions per month — was reported by 1%, 3% and 5% of Illinois eighth, 10th and 12th graders, respectively.
Moreover, a few of those surveyed for the IYS indicated they had abused painkillers and other prescription drugs, including their own medications or those that were prescribed to other people.
About 21% of eighth grade students as well as 28% and 39% of those in the 10th and 12thgrades, respectively, said they drank alcohol or used marijuana, sniffed glue or gases, or smoked e-cigarettes or other vaping products. A few students — 1% of those in the 8th or 10th grades and 2% of the high school seniors — indicated they had used drugs such as ecstasy, crack/cocaine, heroin or hallucinogens/LSD, the survey found.
Respondents were asked if they had experienced any negative consequences from their alcohol and drug use, including getting into arguments or fights, sustaining injuries that required emergency room visits or performing poorly on tests or important projects. About 8% of sophomores and 14% of seniors said they had experienced two or more of these problems — a possible indication that they may need to be professionally assessed for a substance use disorder, Smith said.
Some students — 6% of the sophomores and 10% of the seniors — said they had experienced blackouts, forgetting things they had done while drunk or high, the researchers found. Another worrisome finding: A similar proportion of the sophomores and 11% of the seniors said they drove vehicles while under the influence or rode with drivers who were impaired.
Some students reported that their peers and/or family members had expressed concern about their substance use. About 3% of the 10thgrade students and 4% of those in the 12th grade said that friends or relatives had urged them to cut back, according to the survey.
More than 90% of the survey participants overall said that their parents or guardians had talked with them in the past year about their use of alcohol, marijuana or tobacco, and more than 80% said that their families had clear rules about these activities.
The IYS also explored students’ views about the potential risks associated with drug and alcohol use among people their age. More than 80% of the students in each of the three grades indicated that those who drank alcohol, smoked one or two packs of cigarettes or vaped every day were at moderate or great risk of physical or another type of harm.
Many students viewed using marijuana once or twice a week as far less dangerous: Just 61% of the seniors, 72% of the sophomores and 69% eighth graders viewed regular marijuana use as significantly harmful.
Even fewer students thought daily alcohol use was problematic: 21% of those in the eighth grade and 17% and 18% of those in the 10th and 12th grades, respectively, saw little to no risk in someone their age having one or two drinks of alcohol every day, according to the survey.
Despite that, 91% of the eighth-grade students viewed drinking among people their age as “wrong” or “very wrong,” but the proportion of seniors who agreed was just 70%. Conversely, greater than 90% of students at each of the three grade levels perceived cigarette smoking that way.
A small proportion of the high school students – 5% each of the sophomores and seniors — indicated they were in recovery from a substance use problem. Although this might seem to be a minute fraction of the state’s youths, Smith said that this equates to several thousand young people in Illinois who might benefit from specialized programming such as that provided by a recovery high school, an accredited secondary school that serves youths recovering from addictions. While Illinois currently does not have any such schools, Smith said they are available in several other states.
The research was funded by the Illinois Department of Human Services’ Division of Substance Use Prevention and Recovery through a grant from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
