How prominent is substance abuse on college campuses and why?

 Molly M.

Being a junior in college, I am well aware of the alcohol and substance abuse problems that many of my fellow college students suffer from. I am curious to know how serious these substance abuse issues are and why? According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, “Half of all full-time college students (3.8 million) binge drink, abuse prescription drugs and/or abuse illegal drugs. Almost one in four of the nation’s college students (22.9 percent, some 1.8 million) meet the medical criteria for substance abuse or dependence, two and a half times the proportion (8.5 percent) of those who meet the criteria in the rest of the population.” These results were absolutely shocking to me that there really was SO much substance abuse on campuses. Even more shocking is that “Since the early 1990’s, the proportion of students using marijuana daily has more than doubled. Use of drugs like cocaine and heroin is up 52 percent. Student abuse of prescription opiods, stimulants and tranquillizers has exploded. From 1993 to 2005, the proportion of students who abuse prescription painkillers like Percocet, Vicodin and OxyContin shot up 343 percent to 240,000 students; stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall, 93 percent to 225,000; tranquilizers like Xanax and Valium, 450 percent to 171,000; and sedatives like Nembutal and Seconal, 225 percent to 101,000” (National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University). This brings me to my question of why? College students are under a tremendous amount of stress with schoolwork and the pressures to succeed. Many turn to drugs and alcohol as a way to relieve their stress. Others use drugs and alcohol as a way to socialize and fit in. No matter what the reason is, substance abuse is extremely detrimental to one’s health and future and I think it is extremely important that we as college students take this all into account before we decide to give into the temptation. 

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