College Students, Drug Use and Abuse

The collegiate culture is associated with numerous lifestyle adjustments thereby contributing to a unique set of substance use patterns not seen in other populations. For example, the college environment provides many individuals with their first opportunity to be exposed to a large group of peers with minimal supervision and few adult responsibilities (e.g., full-time employment, childcare, financial pressures). Those who attend college after graduating from high school are more likely to live away from their parents than their same-age peers who do not attend college. Similarly, those in commuter schools who live with parents tend to have lower rates of drug use than those in residential colleges who are isolated from parental supervision. Thus, limited supervision coupled with peer pressure to use substances and to be socially accepted contributes to substance use and abuse on college campuses. In addition, college students perceive that their peers are using substances at higher rates than is actually occurring, which in some instances has been shown to be associated with increases in substance abuse. Similar to all drug populations, the various drug use prevalence rates vary across college campuses. Estimates of substance use also vary across studies, likely due to differences in methodology employed to quantify and verify use (e.g., self-report versus urine analysis).

The best source of information on the prevalence of illicit drug use and abuse among college students is the annual Monitoring the Future (MTF) survey, conducted under a contract issued by the National Institute [Page 214]on Drug Abuse. Although this survey focuses on secondary level students (8th, 10th, and 12th graders), a follow-up survey is conducted each year with a selected sample of college students and other young adults. Since MTF has been conducted annually since 1975, trends in illicit drug use among college students can be ascertained. As of July 2008, the most recent data available for college students are from 2006.

It is no surprise that marijuana is the most popular illicit drug among college students. In 2006, nearly 17% of college students reported past-month use of marijuana. Comparatively, the next most frequent illicit drugs (prescription pain medications) were used by 3.1% of college students in the previous month. Amphetamines were used by 2.5%, tranquilizers by 2.4%, cocaine 1.8%, barbiturates 1.3%, and hallucinogens 0.9%. Contrary to what is reported in the popular press, methamphetamine use among college students is quite low (0.2%). What is clear is that, next to marijuana, prescription drug abuse among college students is the largest problem. Amphetamine use includes drugs used for treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which college students use to stay alert and awake for extended periods of time. When these students use these drugs for this purpose, they gravitate toward tranquilizers and barbiturates in order to counteract the effects of amphetamine drugs (i.e., these drugs must be used in order to sleep).

Just as an examination of current illicit drug use by college students is important, the long-term trends in this population are also instructive. Over an 11-year period, the use of any illicit drugs in the past 30 days among secondary level students has dropped nearly 26%. In this same period, the use of illicit drugs by college students has increased by 9%. (It should be noted that this same increasing trend occurred among young adults not in college.) Although no definitive explanation has been found for this phenomenon, it is logical to assume that young people have been delaying their illicit drug use until they are older. Whether this delay is due to drug prevention efforts, greater parental scrutiny, public policies, or other factors is unclear. However, the data do suggest that young people are not convinced to avoid illicit drug use altogether, but they are influenced to wait to use these substances until they are older.

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