More than 93,000 people died from overdose during 2020 compared to just over 72,000 in 2019.

Despite recommendations from the World Health Organization to ban all alcohol sales during lockdowns, the US and many other countries made decisions to keep alcohol retailers open during the pandemic.

Recent research funded by National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), finds that adolescent marijuana use and binge drinking did not significantly change during the COVID-19 pandemic despite reported decreases in substance access.

As the number of lifetime and daily cannabis users increase, so has the number of young adults reporting depression and suicidal thoughts.

Alcohol misuse was already a public health concern and COVID-19 may have made it worse.

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