Young Poles are using alcohol less and less. Only a few percent smoke traditional cigarettes. The popularity of drugs is also falling. This could be very positive information, but the research, conducted by CBOS, does not give grounds for optimism. The popularity of e-cigarettes is breaking records, the threat of gambling is growing, a large group of young people are using the Internet in a problematic way.
What are young people addicted to? There is the latest report
Published June 3, 2026 06:59
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The report of the "Youth 2025" survey, conducted by CBOS and the National Center for Addiction Prevention, was presented on Tuesday. - We see a clear increase in new challenges - e-cigarettes in particular and problematic use of the Internet, gambling or gaming. What we are seeing are growing threats in the context of peer violence, as well as the continuing deterioration of mental health among young people of this age," said the director of the National Center for Addiction Prevention, Boguslawa Bukowska, MD.
The decline in cigarette use is downright sensational. In the previous survey, conducted in 2021, 20 percent of respondents admitted to using them, in the latest survey - 6 percent. At the moment, young people are definitely more likely to use e-cigarettes - 32 percent of respondents on a regular basis, and 16 percent on an exceptional basis, which means that practically half of the students in the final grades of high school use these devices.
Alcohol is the most prevalent psychoactive substance, although its consumption has decreased compared to the 2021 survey. The downward trend also applies to drugs. An increasing number of young people do not know where to buy drugs, and most say they have never been offered to buy them. The percentage of students who know people who use drugs or narcotics has also declined, with 66 percent of 2025 respondents indicating that there are simply no such people in their community.
The most commonly used illicit substance remains marijuana or hashish, but there has also been a decline in use here. Overall, drug use in the past year was declared by 9 percent of students, a decrease from 2021 and a continuation of the trend seen since 2016. However, experts point out that there is cause for concern here as well, because at the moment these drugs have a different, much more addictive and toxic, composition than just a decade or so ago. Fewer people are reaching for them, but the effects on those who use can be far more significant.
One of the most disturbing phenomena is the marked increase in youth participation in gambling, with more than half of those surveyed admitting to gambling in 2025. Both occasional and regular players have increased. Online gambling is now the most popular, having overtaken Lotto and betting. This problem mainly affects boys, especially students of trade schools, people who rate their family's financial situation as difficult.
CBOS has been conducting surveys of young people - students in the final grades of high school - regularly since the 1990s. Since 2003 it has been doing so in cooperation with the NCPU. The current survey was conducted at the end of 2025 on a sample of 1,506 people - students of 65 high schools (one class in each school) who were 18 years old or older. The survey was filled out by students on their own during a selected lesson, the absence of an interviewer is expected to increase the chances of obtaining honest declarations which, especially in the case of questions about stimulants or risky behavior, is not insignificant.
