The headline is encouraging, substance use is down across the board. But buried in the data is a warning that demands attention from treatment providers and parents alike.
Alcohol Has Replaced Vaping as the Top Teen Substance
In Greater Cincinnati, the shift is now official. The 2026 Student Survey released in March by Prevention First, an Ohio nonprofit that administers biennial anonymous surveys to regional middle and high schoolers, found that alcohol has overtaken vaping as the most commonly used substance among students in grades 7 through 12 across Hamilton, Butler, Clermont, Highland, and Warren counties.
There are a variety of addiction rehab centers in Cincinnati you can explore that are tailored to teens.
The survey drew responses from 23,982 students and was conducted between September and December 2025. Among respondents reporting past-30-day use:
- Alcohol: 6.6% (down from 7.9% in 2024)
- Vaping: 6.1% (down from 8.2% in 2024)
- Marijuana: 4.3% (down from 6.3% in 2024)
- Cigarettes: 1.4% (down from 1.6%)
- Prescription drugs: 1.0% (down from 1.5%)
“The 2026 survey data continues to demonstrate the resiliency of youth, the positive impact of prevention and the importance of protective factors,” Prevention First President and CEO Nicole Schiesler said in a statement.
Nationally, the picture mirrors Southwest Ohio’s. According to data from the Monitoring the Future survey, past-year alcohol use among 12th graders stands at 42%, still the largest single category of teen substance use. Nicotine vaping has declined to 21% among seniors, 15% among 10th graders, and 10% among 8th graders.
Where Teens Are Getting Substances and Why It Matters for Treatment
The Prevention First survey went beyond usage rates to examine access. Friends were the top reported source for every substance except alcohol, which students said they most commonly get from parents.
The most common location for use across all substances was home, with parties ranking second for alcohol and a friend’s house ranking second for vaping and marijuana use.
These findings carry direct implications for how families should approach prevention and when to consider seeking structured addiction treatment. The data suggests teen substance use is largely occurring in familiar, low-surveillance environments, meaning warning signs can be easy to miss.
Prevention First also measured perceived parental disapproval, and found that teens who believe their parents would strongly disapprove of substance use are less likely to use.
Schiesler put it plainly, “When parents consistently express their disapproval of substance use, kids are listening and making better choices.”
The Vaping Crisis Colorado Saw Coming and What It Produced
While Ohio’s numbers show vaping declining, Colorado’s longer-term experience illustrates what happens when the problem goes undertreated for a generation.
A decade ago, Colorado held the unwanted distinction of being the No. 1 state in the nation for teen vaping. In 2017, 27% of Colorado high school students reported current use.
Community-based prevention efforts, public health campaigns and policy changes drove that number down to 16% by 2021 and to roughly 9% by 2023, a reduction of two-thirds in six years.
But at Century Middle School in Thornton, Principal Kristin Devlin has watched the cultural reality lag behind the statistics. “Much more common,” she said of student vaping.
“I don’t even think there’s really the attempt made to conceal them anymore.” Students once hid devices in hoodies and disguised flash drives. Now, many don’t bother.
Eighth-grader Khloe Munoz told CPR News she first became aware of kids vaping in third grade, a classmate who stole her mother’s device and used it under a playground slide.
“It’s really addictive to most kids and it’s just hard for them to stop, especially if they’ve been addicted for a while,” Khloe said.
The state’s most recent survey data, from 2023, found that nearly 6% of Colorado middle school students used an electronic vapor product in the past month. Among 13-year-olds, that figure climbed to roughly 8%.
Teen Vapers Who Didn’t Quit Are Now Adult Addicts
Colorado’s experience reveals the long-term cost of undertreated adolescent nicotine addiction.
State health department data show that adult vaping rates in Colorado are rising sharply, driven primarily by 18-to-24-year-olds who started as teens and never stopped. That age group saw vaping rates rise approximately 61% from 2020 to 2022.
Yale University psychiatry professor Suchitra Krishnan-Sarin has noted in her research that the adolescent brain requires far less nicotine exposure than an adult brain to develop dependence.
She has also raised the question of whether early nicotine exposure reshapes developing brain chemistry in ways that increase vulnerability to other substance use disorders later in life.
Nationally, a USC study analyzing data from more than 115,000 teens found that as overall vaping rates decline, the teens who remain are vaping more heavily.
Among youth who reported any vaping in the past 30 days, the share who vaped daily nearly doubled, from 15.4% in 2020 to 28.8% in 2024.
In rural communities, daily vaping among teen vapers jumped from 16.4% to 41.8% over the same period.
Dr. Abbey Masonbrink of the USC Keck School of Medicine said the findings signal a treatment crisis hiding inside good-news headlines, “The rise in daily vaping and growing number of youth trying to quit implies that these youth are experiencing a severe level of nicotine addiction.”
What Recovery Looks Like for Teen Vapers
At Fort Lupton and Westminster high schools in Colorado, motivational speaker Kyle Wimmer, a former art teacher who goes by Mr. FOUR 24s, has built a school assembly program around one simple ask, turn in your vape, free of judgment and punishment.
His work has been featured by The New York Times and at Stanford Medicine conferences.
At a January 2026 assembly at Century Middle School, Wimmer displayed confiscated devices, described the mechanics of addiction, and handed out colored wristbands marking milestones, 24 hours, 24 days, 24 weeks without nicotine.
By the end of the day, students had voluntarily surrendered four nicotine vapes and two cannabis vaping devices.
One of his former students, Madison, a junior at Mountain Range High School in Westminster, said she started vaping in middle school due to peer pressure and became dependent on Geek Bar disposables.
Chest pain and shortness of breath followed. “It’s not a good addiction at all,” she said. “It’s difficult for me to run because I’ll start to feel burning in my chest.”
Hearing Wimmer’s presentation changed something. “It felt like I wasn’t alone, and I knew that I had a support system to go to.” She turned in her devices. “When you’re addicted to nicotine, it has power over you. Very strong power over you. So, feeling like you have power over it helps. A lot.”
Her experience reflects what research bears out: for daily-use teen vapers, social connection and structured support, not information alone, are the drivers of successful cessation.
Teen Mental Health Is Improving But Still a Concern
Prevention First’s 2026 survey also tracked mental health trends among Greater Cincinnati students, and found improvements across the board, though the numbers remain high enough to warrant serious attention.
Among respondents:
- 31% reported feeling anxious in the past 30 days (down from 35.6% in 2024 and 38.8% in 2022)
- Rates of depression have fallen nearly 7 percentage points since 2022
- Isolation has declined from 26.2% in 2024 to 23.2% in 2026
Schiesler connected the mental health improvement directly to the substance use decline. “We believe the mental health improvements are related to the decrease we’ve seen in substance use, because focus group data for the past several years has told us that students use substances as a coping mechanism,” she said.
A new question added to this year’s survey asked students how social media affects their body image and sleep.
Roughly 40% of respondents said social media negatively impacted how they felt about their body, a data point Schiesler said Prevention First will prioritize in future research.
What This Means for Treatment Seekers
For families, these combined findings point toward a few clear action items. The most important, don’t assume declining numbers mean your teen is not at risk.
Alcohol, available at home and normalized at parties, is the most-used substance in Greater Cincinnati schools, and likely in many similar communities nationally.
And for teens still vaping, the hardening data suggests these are not casual experimenters. They are dependent users who are statistically unlikely to quit without formal support.
Families seeking help should look for adolescent-specific programs that address nicotine dependence and alcohol use disorder.
They should also look for programs that address the underlying mental health conditions such as anxiety, depression and isolation. Research consistently links these conditions to teen substance use.
Finding the Right Addiction Treatment for Teens
If your family is navigating teen substance use, whether alcohol, vaping, marijuana or a combination, the right care means more than a pamphlet or a hotline. Evidence-based adolescent treatment programs address the behavioral, neurological, and environmental factors that drive use and make quitting hard.
When evaluating treatment options, consider asking about:
- Adolescent-specific programming and age-appropriate group therapy
- Integrated mental health treatment for anxiety, depression, and trauma
- Evidence-based nicotine cessation support if vaping is involved
- Insurance coverage for adolescent addiction treatment, including outpatient levels of care
- Family involvement components, given the data on parental influence
Rehab.com’s directory includes thousands of verified rehab centers, many with dedicated adolescent programs. Call
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