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How the Pandemic Has Affected Minority Youth Substance Use

Group drinking beet outdoors

A new study just out this month in The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, Divergent changes: abstinence and higher-frequency substance use increase among racial/ethnic minority young adults during the COVID-19 global pandemic“, found that the pandemic affects racial and ethnic minority college students in surprisingly different ways. Some students are drinking, using marijuana, and smoking cigarettes or vaping even less than usual, whereas the heaviest drinkers and more frequent marijuana users and cigarette smokers or vapers actually increased their use. Who is changing their use, and what contributes to which kids increase substance use and which kids decrease? Find those answers in Psychology Today article, How the Pandemic Has Affected Minority Youth Substance Use, written by Terrell Hicks with support from RARC Director, Dr. Danielle Dick.