Assessment Reveals Youth Substance Use Trends in Berkshires
Mixed Signals
The South Berkshire Community Health Coalition (SBCHC), a program of Railroad Street Youth Project, has released findings from the 2025 Prevention Needs Assessment (PNA) Survey, providing a timely snapshot of youth substance use and behavioral health in South Berkshire County.
The biennial survey — administered to public school students in grades 8, 10, and 12 — serves as a tool in measuring the community’s effectiveness in supporting youth well-being and preventing substance use. This year’s results reveal a concerning upward trend in alcohol and cannabis use among youth, reversing nearly a decade of progress.
“These numbers are somewhat of a mixed bag,” said Laura Rodriguez, director of SBCHC. “We’re definitely seeing the longer-term effects of the pandemic — particularly how substance use became more normalized in homes. And that’s where the solution starts: with us. We need parents, families, and trusted adults to step into leadership roles in shifting norms and expectations. This isn’t something young people can navigate on their own.”
“We’re definitely seeing the longer-term effects of the pandemic — particularly how substance use became more normalized in homes. And that’s where the solution starts: with us. We need parents, families, and trusted adults to step into leadership roles in shifting norms and expectations. This isn’t something young people can navigate on their own.”
Among the key findings from the 2025 PNA, alcohol use is rebounding. After declining for several years, alcohol use among South County youth began to rise in 2021 and is now the most commonly used substance. Among students who were in grade 8 in 2021, 30-day alcohol use rose by 87% by the time they reached 10th grade in 2023. For 10th-graders in 2021, rates increased by 84% by the time they reached 12th grade in 2023.
The parental role in alcohol abuse may be shifting as well; 25% of all surveyed students that reported using alcohol in the previous year got it from home with parental permission.
Meanwhile, from 2021 to 2025, 30-day cannabis use almost doubled across all surveyed grades. This surge is strongly linked to increasingly permissive attitudes among parents and shifting social norms around cannabis, highlighting the crucial role adults play in shaping youth behavior.
Similar to the alcohol findings, 13% of all surveyed students that reported using cannabis in the previous year got it from home with parental permission.
There were some positive trends in tobacco use. Encouragingly, e-cigarette use among 12th-graders dropped from 29% to 13% from 2021 to 2025, and cigarette use fell from 7.3% to 3.7%. Meanwhile, after a peak in 2021, reported depressive symptoms among youth declined in both 2023 and 2025, which SBCHC attributes to more robust school-based mental health supports and youth-centered prevention efforts.
Community-driven Solutions
The SBCHC works with youth, schools, parents, and regional organizations to design and implement coordinated prevention strategies rooted in local data and lived experience. Efforts are focused on reducing risk factors — such as youth isolation and low perception of harm — and building up protective factors like strong peer networks, accurate information, and consistent adult engagement.
Current strategies include Youth Education for Action, a youth-led approach that includes the Peer Health Educator Program and Restorative Prevention Fellowship, providing students in both Southern Berkshire and Berkshire Hills regional school districts with tools to lead prevention efforts in their schools.
Parents and caregivers are also being equipped with tools to shift community norms. SBCHC’s Kitchen Table Talks peer model creates space for candid conversations and encourages adult community members to challenge permissive attitudes toward youth substance use.
The SBCHC recently offered a free Kitchen Table Talks facilitator training on Sept. 10 at Great Barrington Family Resource Center, and on Saturday, Oct. 18, it will offer an Invitation to Change training from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Berkshire South Regional Community Center. These evidence-based workshops are designed to help parents and caregivers respond constructively to a young person’s substance use, reduce conflict, and foster positive change.
“Our strength is in collaboration,” Rodriguez said. “Parents, educators, neighbors — every caring adult in this community has a role to play in prevention. This is not just a school issue or a family issue — it’s a community-wide call to action.”
Railroad Street Youth Project is dedicated to empowering young people in Berkshire County by providing them with the tools, support, and opportunities they need to lead healthy, fulfilling lives. RSYP’s programs focus on youth development, education, workforce training, and substance use prevention.
