Lifetime use of alcohol and cannabis among U.S. adolescents across age: Exploring differential patterns by sex and race/ethnicity using the 2019 NSDUH data

•Reports of alcohol/cannabis use among youth increases with each additional year.•Sex and race/ethnicity differences were examined using the 2019 NSDUH data.•Increased alcohol use across age was much steeper in Whites/Latinos than Blacks.•Increased cannabis use across age was slightly steeper in Latinos than Whites/Blacks.•Increased alcohol use across age was slightly steeper in girls than boys. Early use of alcohol and cannabis is associated with health and social problems. It is unclear how lifetime use changes for each additional year of age during adolescence, and whether this change varies by sex and race/ethnicity. This study characterized lifetime rates of alcohol and cannabis use by age among 12- to 17-year-old American youth and explored differential patterns by sex and race/ethnicity. Data were obtained from the 2019 National Survey on Drug Use and Health. Analyses were restricted to 12–17-year-olds who were non-Hispanic White, non-Hispanic Black, or Hispanic/Latino (n = 11,830). We estimated the increase in lifetime use of alcohol and cannabis by age for the full sample and stratified by sex and race/ethnicity. Slopes of the regression lines were compared to assess differential patterns across groups. In these cross-sectional analyses, reported lifetime use increased substantially from age 12 to 17 for alcohol (6.4 % to 53.2 %) and cannabis (1.3 % to 35.9 %). The increase in lifetime alcohol use was slightly, but not significantly, steeper among girls than boys (F1,8 = 3.40, p = 0.09). White and Latino youth showed similar rates of increase in lifetime alcohol use, which was significantly flatter among Black youth (F2,12=21.26, p