Keeping Glen Cove SAFE: Underage Drinking Awareness Campaign
Keeping Glen Cove SAFE: Underage Drinking Awareness Campaign
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.
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 and has been doing so since 1975.
Alcohol
In 2025, alcohol use continued a long-term decline in all three grades for lifetime and past 12-month use. This trend also continued for past 30-day (current) use in 8th and 10th grade, although in 12th grade use increased by 0.6 of a percentage point.
Alcohol use experienced its largest recorded decline in 12th grade (tracked since 1975) and in 10th grade (tracked since 1991) for past 12-month use. None of these one-year changes from 2024 to 2025 were statistically significant.
The long-term, overall decline has taken place since the year 2000 in all three grades. From 2000 to 2025, past 12-month prevalence has decreased from 73% to 41% in 12th grade, from 65% to 24% in 10th grade, and from 43% to 11% in 8th grade.
Unlike most other drugs, alcohol use showed only a modest increase during the 1990s relapse, exhibiting more of a pause in its long-term decline.
Binge drinking, defined as consuming five or more drinks in a row in the past two weeks, held steady from 2024 to 2025 in all three grades. These levels show a slow but steady long-term decline in which prevalence levels from 2000 to 2025 have fallen from 30% to 9% in 12th grade, from 24% to 2% in 10th grade, and from 12% to 1% in 8th grade. Extreme binge drinking of ten or more drinks in a row in the past two weeks has also declined substantially since first tracked (in 2005 in 12th grade and in 2016 in 10th and 8th grade).
Been Drunk
In 2025, prevalence of being drunk ever or in the past 12 months significantly decreased in 8th grade. It did not significantly change in 10th and 12th grade for any of the reporting intervals.
Being drunk has been in a long-term decline in all three grades for lifetime, past 12-month, and past 30-day measures, as has overall alcohol use. The declines in being drunk began first among 8th graders after 1996, then among 10th graders after 2000, and then among 12th graders after 2004, suggesting a cohort effect.
The survey text for this item reads “On how many occasions (if any) have you been drunk or very high from drinking alcoholic beverages?”
Beer
From 2024 to 2025, prevalence of beer drinking did not significantly change in any of the three grades for any of the reporting intervals.
In the long term, beer use has declined substantially in all grades. From 1991 to 2025, lifetime use decreased in 12th grade from 82% to 30%, in 10th grade from 74% to 19%, and in 8th grade from 59% to 11%. Similarly, large, long-term declines have also taken place for past 12-month and past 30-day use.
Trends in binge drinking of beer, defined as drinking five or more 12-ounce cans of beer in a row during the past two weeks, have followed the overall decline in beer use. The questions on binge drinking were discontinued in 2022 to make room for new content.
Wine
Wine consumption is asked only of 12th grade students.
In 2025, prevalence reached record lows for lifetime, past 12-month, and past 30-day use, although none of the one-year changes from 2024 to 2025 were statistically significant. These lows are the culmination of an overall decline that has persisted for two and a half decades. From 2000 to 2025, lifetime prevalence fell from 64% to 25%, past 12-month prevalence from 45% to 16%, and past 30-day prevalence from 16% to 6%.
In 1988, MTF added a question on wine coolers, which had the effect of sharply reducing self-reported wine use. (Up to that point many users of wine coolers likely reported such use under wine.) Prevalence of wine use rose somewhat during the 1990s drug relapse but continued a long-standing decline beginning in 2001.
Binge drinking with wine declined substantially in the late 1980s, suggesting that wine coolers accounted for reported wine binge drinking until wine coolers were separated into their own category. Questions on binge drinking with wine, defined as five or more 4-ounce glasses of wine in row during the last two weeks, were discontinued in 2022 to make room for new content.
Liquor
Use of hard liquor is asked only of 12th grade students. In 2025, prevalence decreased, although not significantly, for the three reporting intervals of lifetime, past 12-month, and past 30-day use. With these decreases, prevalence levels were at the lowest recorded by the survey. Nevertheless, prevalence remains substantial, with one out of every six 12th graders reporting use of liquor in the past 30 days.
Flavored Alcoholic Beverages
In 2025, use of flavored alcoholic beverages (also known as “alcopops” or “malternatives”) edged upward in all three grades for past 30-day, past 12-month, and lifetime use, although none of these increases were statistically significant. Despite the upward trend this year, use levels remained near record lows.
Use of these products has declined substantially over the past two decades. For example, from 2004 to 2025 past 30-day use declined in 8th grade from 15% to 2%, in 10th grade from 25% to 6%, and in 12th grade from 31% to 16%. These declines are consistent with a decline in adolescent use of alcohol overall in recent decades.
Powdered Alcohol
Powdered alcohol, as the name suggests, can be added to water to form an alcoholic drink. MTF began tracking the prevalence of this substance in 2016. The annual prevalence remained below 2% across all grades and years until the measure was discontinued in 2019. Although the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau approved labels for its sale under the brand name Palcohol in 2014, very few states have legalized the product. Questions about powdered alcohol will be reintroduced to the questionnaire if media reports or other sources indicate an increase in its use. The data collected from 2016 to 2019 provide a baseline assessment of its use when it was not widely available commercially.
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 https://www.nida.nih.gov/.
Local and County Resources
Central Nassau Guidance and Counseling Services
Charles Evans Center Glen Cove
Long Island Addictions Resource Center
Long Island Center for Recovery
Long Island Council of Alcoholism & Drug Dependance (LICADD)
Nassau Alliance For Addiction Services (NAFAD)
South Oaks with Northwell Health
YES Community Counseling Center
National Resources and Data
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Alcohol and Public Health; Underage Drinking
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Alcohol and Public Health: Addressing Excessive Alcohol Use: State Fact Sheets
CDC works with states and communities to prevent excessive alcohol use and its impact. These fact sheets highlight the public health problem and the status of alcohol policy solutions in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Alcohol and Public Health: New York The Numbers: Average Number of Deaths from Excessive Drinking is More Than 6,700
Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking: Stop Underage Drinking: Communities Talk
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism: Underage Drinking
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism: Alcohol and Your Brain – A Virtual Reality Experience (video)
New York State Office of Addiction Services and Supports: OASAS
Portal for Federal Underage Drinking: Resources
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA)
Tips for Teens: Underage Drinking: Myth vs Facts-For preteens and teens. It compares the myths with the facts about alcohol use among youth and the effects of alcohol use. This fact sheet can help parents and prevention professionals start conversations about underage drinking and alcohol misuse.
National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism: Women and Alcohol
Research shows that alcohol use and misuse among women are increasing While alcohol misuse by anyone presents serious public health concerns, women who drink have a higher risk of certain alcohol-related problems compared to men.
Resources for Alcohol and Substance Prevention and Treatment Providers
The Prevention Technology Transfer Center (PTTC) Network develops and disseminates tools and strategies needed to improve the quality of substance abuse prevention efforts and provide training and technical assistance services to the substance use/misuse prevention field.
Alcohol Awareness Toolkit Seeks to raise awareness about alcohol-related harms and the importance of strong alcohol policies for prevention and public health providers to strategically educate and inform decision makers about effective alcohol policies by providing easy-to-personalize, templated opinion editorials, letters to legislators and proclamations.
Healthcare Professional’s Core Resource on Alcohol. Developed by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) to provides clinicians with articles, insights, and tools to improve alcohol-related healthcare and clinical outcomes.
