Substance Use

Students often find themselves up against tough decisions—one of which is standing up to pressures to do drugs and consume alcohol. Supporting the widespread, sustainable scale-up of established, evidence-based prevention programs that are culturally-tailored and developmentally appropriate holds promise for improving youth engagement and health outcomes, while reducing health disparities. Effective prevention has extensive, cross-cutting effects on different types of substance use and other areas of behavioral health. Prevention strategies can improve awareness, knowledge, and attitudes related to substance misuse, and build individual, interpersonal, family, and community skills, resilience, and competencies.

As shown in the most recent Monitoring the Future study, substance abuse is among the greatest public health threats . Substance abuse can negatively affect students’ learning, memory, and attention, according to experts, so schools have good reason to address these challenges head on. Vape pens have also made it more difficult for educators to catch students who are using drugs because they aren’t as obvious as cigarettes, experts said. Experts attributed the increase that school-based health professionals are seeing to the worsening youth mental health crisis, because substance use is often a coping mechanism for poor mental health.

Data Analysis

Nonetheless, the committee recognizes that accomplishing difficult tasks is a hallmark of the U.S. higher education enterprise (see Box 5-1). The committee acknowledges how difficult it is to change any organizational culture and climate, and those within institutions of higher education are no different. For that reason, the committee is not advocating a single “ideal” that all institutions of higher education should adopt or strive for. Research has also documented differences in the prevalence of symptoms and use of services across race and ethnicity, socioeconomic background, gender identity, and academic discipline (Eisenberg, Hunt, and Speer, 2013; Lipson et al., 2016). The challenge for the committee in offering these approaches is that there can be no one-size-fits-all solutions given the diversity of institutions, their institutional and financial capacities, and their specific student populations.

Introduction to Substance Use in College Settings

• The misuse of alcohol, cannabis, and prescription stimulants can lead to both short-term and long-term health consequences.
• Establish firm boundaries that allow teachers to share relatable stories about smart decisions regarding alcohol and other drugs.
• Other students may lack a private space for accessing these services, either on or off campus.
• Tested and proven effective in eight peer-reviewed studies, Vector’s courses equip campus members with the skills and abilities to reinforce healthy, safe decision-making when it comes to alcohol and other drugs.
• Since the 1970s, colleges and universities have introduced collegiate recovery programs (CRPs) to support students with substance use disorders (Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation, 2020).

The first comprises an alcohol prevention coordinator at each of a convenience sample of 22 colleges and universities across the United States that are participating in a study of alcohol abuse prevention strategies, including an online alcohol education course for first year students. This exploratory study examined the relationship between colleges’ alcohol abuse prevention strategies, as assessed by a new rating tool developed to assess the intensity and comprehensiveness of a broad spectrum of prevention strategies on college campuses, and their students’ level of alcohol abuse and related problems. One reason that drug abuse has increased may be that substance abuse is more common for students that have a mental illness.20 It is unclear exactly why mental illness has risen so much in recent years among college students,21 but it has been found that students that struggle with mental illness and feelings of being overwhelmed, anxious, sad, or hopeless often turn to drugs to find relief.22 It is important for colleges and universities to have prevention programs in place to educate students, raise awareness about substance misuse on campus, and provide resources to support students who need help.

Drugs and alcohol are considered to be a normal part of college life, and as such are very easily found. Often the drugs will help them feel more confident and have a different perception of how others view them.43 College culture presents a new environment to many new freshmen, as many are living on their own for the first time and are possibly exposed to drugs more often than they would have been before. These drugs are needed and recommended for those that struggle with anxiety or panic attacks and are prescribed these medications by their doctor.38 However, this use becomes drug misuse when the medication is not used as directed by a physician or if it is used by someone other Hispanic and Latino Student Mental Health Guide than who they wrote the prescription for. Alcohol numbed the feelings and made the flashbacks go away.”26 However, though alcohol has numbing properties that temporarily halt symptoms of PTSD and other mental illness, the substance wears off and the individual must re-medicate to find the same relief.27 With time, this constant self-medication can lead to addiction.

There has been speculation in the past that perhaps many of these students would use drugs whether or not they were in Greek life and that perhaps they have a predisposition to drugs; however, researchers found that students who left a sorority or fraternity during their college career showed a decrease in substance use the following year.50 Most students do not even have to look—2 in 3 students will have been offered prescription drugs by their senior year of college.44 Out of students that had not used marijuana before college, a study found that 74% of them were offered marijuana while at school, and 54% ended up using marijuana. When researching students across the nation, the data showed that around 7% of students were using study drugs to help them focus and stay awake.31 In comparison, it is estimated that only 5% of college students have been diagnosed with ADHD.32 Additionally, many college students take these drugs due to the therapeutic effects of increasing focusing and concentration, hoping that they will be able to focus better as they study and take tests. These prevention strategies, when implemented effectively, contribute to a healthier and more supportive campus community. By implementing various strategies, colleges and universities can effectively combat substance abuse and promote overall well-being.