Every two years, middle school and high school students across Tompkins County fill out the Community-Level Youth Development Evaluation (CLYDE) survey, which covers drug use and mental health. The results from this fall’s administration are summarized below, and can be accessed online using the QR code.
Alcohol, tobacco, and prescription drug use have remained pretty steady over the past five years; roughly one in eight respondents across grades seven through twelve reported recent drinking, one in twenty reported recent binge drinking, one in thirty reported recent tobacco use, and one in fifty reported recent prescription drug use. Unsurprisingly, alcohol, marijuana, and tobacco use is much higher among older students.
Between 2021 and 2023, the percentage of respondents reporting recent nicotine vaping dropped from 9.3 percent to 6.6 percent, where it remained in 2025. This corresponds with an increase from 69.9 percent in 2021 to 73.4 percent in 2025 of students reporting that e-cigarettes were harmful. The percentage of respondents reporting recent marijuana vaping dropped only slightly, from 5.7 to 5.1 in 2025.
General marijuana consumption is on a slow but steady decline, and more students than ever perceive it as harmful. In 2021, 10.1 percent of respondents reported recent marijuana use; in 2025, 7.6 percent. While 45.9 percent of students reported marijuana was harmful in 2021, that number rose to 54.2 percent in 2025. Notably, however, older students report marijuana use as harmful at a much lower rate than younger students. This variation in perception across grades is unique to marijuana and is not found with regards to alcohol, tobacco, vaping, or prescription drugs.
Since students have returned from lockdown, depression has, as expected, declined. Whereas 41.9 percent of respondents reported feeling depressed most days in 2021, 35.4 percent reported the same in 2023, and 32 percent in 2025. This contrast can likely be attributed to the isolation, screentime, and uncertainty associated with the pandemic.
While in-person schooling has improved the mood of the general student body, it has also come with an increase in school-based bullying. In 2021, roughly an equal number of students reported experiencing at-school and online bullying, around twenty-one percent. In 2025, electronic bullying dropped to eighteen percent, while at-school bullying rose to twenty-eight percent.
Overall, in the years since the pandemic, substance abuse is either steady or declining, mental health is improving, and bullying is increasing in Tompkins County schools. Each of these trends is reflective of a student body returning from lockdown; whether they continue into the coming years or level out is yet to be seen.
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