College drug use, binge drinking rise
Pastor Dale Morgan
College drug use, binge drinking rise*
A young man takes a puff of a pot joint in Washington, D.C. Marijuana
use rose from 27.9 percent in '93 to 33.3 percent in '05.
'HIGHER' EDUCATION?
The percentage of college students saying they took potentially
dangerous drugs during the previous year is up:
Any illicit drug
• 1993: 30.6
• 2005: 36.6
Marijuana
• 1993: 27.9
• 2005: 33.3
Hallucinogens
• 1993: 6.0
• 2005: 5.0
Inhalants
• 1993: 3.8
• 2005: 1.8
Cocaine
• 1993: 2.7
• 2005: 5.7
Heroin
• 1993: 0.1
• 2005: 0.3
Source: The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia
University
By Donna Leinwand, USA TODAY
Nearly half of America's 5.4 million full-time college students abuse
drugs or drink alcohol on binges at least once a month, according to a
new study that portrays substance and alcohol abuse as an increasingly
urgent problem on campuses across the nation.
Alcohol remains the favored substance of abuse on college campuses by
far, but the abuse of prescription drugs and marijuana has increased
dramatically since the mid-1990s, according to the study released today
by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at
Columbia University.
CASA, which called on educators to move more aggressively to counter
intensifying drug and alcohol use among students, first studied
students' drug and alcohol habits in 1993. Today's report — the center's
second on the subject — involved a survey of 2,000 student and 400
administrators as well as analyses of six national studies.
The center found that "the situation on America's campuses has
deteriorated" since 1993, CASA President Joseph Califano says.
AUDIO: Califano: Time to get the 'high' out of higher education
The study found that college students have higher rates of alcohol or
drug addiction than the general public: 22.9% of students meet the
medical definition for alcohol or drug abuse or dependence — a
compulsive use of a substance despite negative consequences — compared
with 8.5% of all people 12 and older.
White students are more likely to use drugs and alcohol than minority
students, and students at historically black colleges have much lower
rates of substance abuse than other students, the study found.
School administrators have not done enough to curtail drug and alcohol
abuse on campus, Califano says. In CASA's survey of administrators,
two-thirds said responsibility for stopping drug abuse rests with students.
"It's not on the radar screen of college presidents. This is not a
priority," Califano says. "We believe they have an obligation to protect
the health and safety of their students."
Donald Harward, president emeritus of Bates College in Maine, says
drinking and drug abuse are a symptom of students' disengagement from
academic and civil life on campus. "I think a lot of presidents are
aware of (increasing alcohol and drug problems among students), and they
are struggling to come to grips with it."
Nearly half the students surveyed by CASA said they drank or used drugs
to relax, reduce stress or forget about problems. Other findings:
Students who said they had abused painkillers such as Percocet, Vicodin
and OxyContin during the past month rose from fewer than 1% of students
in 1993 to 3.1% in 2005, a reflection of how the rising number and
availability of prescription drugs has increased abuse.
The percentage of students who reported smoking marijuana heavily — at
least 20 days during the past month — more than doubled, from 1.9% in
1993 to 4% in 2005.
The percentage of students who reported using illegal drugs other than
marijuana, such as cocaine and heroin, in the past month jumped from
5.4% in 1993 to 8.2% in 2005.
Overall, the percentage of students who reported drinking alcohol at
least occasionally was about the same: 68% in 2005, compared with 70% in
1993. Those who said they engaged in binge drinking — defined as having
five drinks for male students and four drinks for female students at one
"drinking occasion" during the previous two weeks — held steady at 40%.
However, the percentage of students who reported binge drinking three or
more times during the previous two weeks increased from 19.7% in 1993 to
22.8% in 2001, the study found. In 2005, 83% of campus arrests involved
alcohol, the study found.