Fact or Fiction? Take the Drug Quiz!

Question 1 of 10

Eight percent of people aged 12 or older have a substance use disorder.

Lonely woman with drugs
Fact
Fiction

Fiction – In 2023, 17.1 percent of people aged 12 or older had a substance use disorder, according to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.

Question 2 of 10

Drug overdose deaths have more than doubled from 2012 to 2022.

Drug overdose
Fact
Fiction

Fact – Drug overdose deaths have skyrocketed from around 40,000 in 2012 to more than 107,000 in 2022, reported the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Question 3 of 10

Deaths from drug overdoses involving cocaine have increased every year since 2013.

Cocaine skull
Fact
Fiction

​​​​​Fact – Deaths from drug overdoses involving cocaine have surged from 4,944 in 2013 to 27,675 in 2022 (most recent data), according to DEA’s 2020 and 2024 National Drug Threat Assessments.

Question 4 of 10

The following are effects of a heroin overdose: slow and shallow breathing, blue lips and fingernails, clammy skin, convulsions, coma, and possible death.

Letters spelling "heroin"
Fact
Fiction

Fact – Find out more about heroin and other drugs, including appearance, common street names, effects, and legal status by visiting the Drug Index.

Question 5 of 10

Fentanyl is five times more potent than heroin and ten times more potent than morphine.

Fentanyl pencil and rainbow pills
Fact
Fiction

Fiction – Fentanyl is 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine. Find out more about the #1 drug threat facing America by downloading the Fentanyl Drug Fact Sheet.

Question 6 of 10

DEA lab testing reveals that seven out of every ten fake pills with fentanyl contain a potentially lethal dose.

Fentanyl keyboard
Fact
Fiction

Fact – This figure rose from four in ten in 2021. Read more about fake pills and fentanyl in this DEA One Pill Can Kill flyer.

Question 7 of 10

In 2023, marijuana use among adults aged 19-30 increased to all-time highs.

Marijuana brain
Fact
Fiction

Fact – As of 2023, 42.4 percent of young adults used marijuana once or more in the previous 12 months. However, this is a drop from the 43.6 percent who reported using the substance in 2022, according to Monitoring the Future. Still, the 2023 figure is substantially up from the 30.6 percent of young adults who reported using marijuana in 2013.

Question 8 of 10

States are increasingly passing legislation to legalize marijuana as the drug has been proven not to have adverse effects.

Marijuana and gavel
Fact
Fiction

Fiction – While several states have legalized marijuana, the drug is still linked to mental health problems like anxiety and psychosis, can slow brain development, and is the substance most often found in the blood of drivers involved in and frequently responsible for car crashes. Watch a quick video fact check on marijuana here.

Question 9 of 10

While national overdose deaths involving heroin are slumping, national overdose deaths involving stimulants (ex. cocaine) are sharply rising.

Fact
Fiction

Fact – National overdose deaths involving heroin have dropped from around 15,500 in 2017 to 5,871 in 2022. But national overdose deaths involving stimulants have soared from around 5,000 in 2010 to 57,497 in 2022, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Use of stimulants in conjunction with fentanyl is responsible for much of the increase.

Question 10 of 10

While adolescent alcohol use decreased between 2021 and 2023, levels of adolescent cannabis use and nicotine vaping spiked after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, remaining high into 2023.

alcoholandmarijuana_article.jpg
Fact
Fiction

Fiction – Adolescent alcohol use significantly increased between 2021 and 2022, reaching pre-pandemic levels, but dropped to slightly below 2021 levels in 2023. Conversely, levels of cannabis use and nicotine vaping went down after the onset of the pandemic, remaining relatively low into 2023, according to Monitoring the Future.

Results