4 ms·

The data isn't there- survey data is showing declining use of prescription drugs abuse, and even what it does show is around 15% of the 12th grade population ha

The data isn't there- survey data is showing declining use of prescription drugs abuse, and even what it does show is around 15% of the 12th grade population having ever abused prescription drugs, with less than 5% having used in the last month. See: https://www.drugabuse.gov/trends-statistics/monitoring-future/monitoring-future-study-trends-in-prevalence-various-drugs https://www.drugabuse.gov/trends-statistics/monitoring-futur... People in social groups that routinely use drugs tend to over estimate their prevalence in society at large. Even weed is below 50% lifetime use and 20% monthly use for 12th graders. I'd argue fortnite is a bigger part of youth culture than opiates.

erikpukinskis 7y ago
20% of youth seems like a huge number to me. What percent do you think play Fortnite?
- topkai22 7y ago
  I said opiate use not Marijuana, which is around 5% monthly use. I'll easily concede Marijuana and alcohol use are major parts of youth culture, although again but as big as people using them think (which I didn't believe in high school / college either). As for Fortnite share- there are ~76 million unique fortnite players in a month and supposedly 40-60% of them are between 18-24. I'm going to go with the low number. I have no good data on Fortnite play by country other than its popular in the USA and parts of Europe, but not in Asia, so I'll just say that 1/6 of the players live in the USA (again, probably pretty conservative). There are roughly 25 million 18-24 year olds in the US. So we get 76M*.4/6 = 5M for the number of monthly US fortnite players in the US, or roughly 20% of the population in question. A lot more than opioid users, roughly the same as reported marijuana use, and a lot less than alcohol use.