Wasting the Best and the Brightest: Substance Abuse at America’s Colleges and Universities, The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA), March 2007

This report reveals an alarming public health crisis on college campuses across the nation and notes the harmful academic, health and social consequences that extend into the surrounding communities. 

Forty-nine percent (3.8 million) of full time college students binge drink and/or abuse prescription drugs.  1.8 million of these students (22.9 percent) meet the medical criteria for substance abuse and dependence, two and one half times the 8.5 percent of the general population who meet the same criteria.

Only one-fifth of administrators at these institutions believe that the school bears primary responsibility to prevent alcohol and drug use among their students.  The two most frequently mentioned barriers to implementing more effective substance use prevention policies and programs were that student substance abuse is seen as a normal rite of passage (37.8 percent) and limited financial resources/funding (34.3 percent).

Between 1993 and 2005 the proportion of students abusing prescription drugs increased:

• 343 percent for opiods like Percocet, Vicodin, and OxyContin;
• 93 percent for abuse of stimulants like Ritalin;
• 450 percent for tranquilizers like Xanax and Valium; and
• 225 percent for sedatives like Nembutal and Seconal.
  Also, during the same time period:
• daily use of marijuana more than doubled to 310,000; and
• use of cocaine, heroin, and other illegal drugs is up 52 percent to 636,000.
  Other significant findings include:
• Fraternity and sorority members are likelier than non-members to use marijuana (21 percent vs. 16 percent) or cocaine (3 percent vs. 1.5 percent);
• College students who fear the social stigma attached to substance abuse (37 percent) would not seek help.  Only 6 percent of students who meet the medical criteria for alcohol or drug abuse dependence seek help.
• 78 percent of college students who use illicit drugs have sexual intercourse compared to 44 percent of those who never use drugs.

The full report can be found out http://www.casacolumbia.org