Flat parties, student nights, and even society socials all seem based around one thing: alcohol. With many aspects of student life being centred around being drunk, and many students experiencing big life changes, are other substances such as illegal drugs promoted to those most vulnerable?
Alcohol is a big part of the university experience for most. With University being many students’ first time living away from home, the first experience of complete freedom, and being of legal age to drink, it’s no wonder that this experience is one big party.
But when excessive ‘binge’ drinking becomes a regular habit, or illegal drugs are involved, it becomes a dangerous environment. Reliance on such substances can also become a threat when they’re used to de-stress or wind down as associating mind-altering substances with the feeling of relaxation is risky.
According to a 2018 BBC report, 56% of higher education students have tried illegal substances: 39% are regular drug takers and 17% have tried drugs at some point. The majority of students admitting to trying some form of illegal drug begs the question, why do they do it?
There is an attitude surrounding alcohol at University similar to that of sports: who can drink the most? Who will be the first to be sick? Who will have the worst hangover?
Drinking becomes like an Olympics with different titles up for grabs and this makes it hard to not take it too far as sometimes the ridiculing of being the ‘boring friend’ can feel so isolating.
Moreover, a lot of freshers' events and society events include alcohol, so not only is there pressure to drink but there’s also nothing worse than being sober in a pool of drunk people! When everyone around you is bonding over beer pong and Jägerbombs, it can feel like you don’t have the same connection with them if you’re not joining in on the drinking.
Feeling socially isolated can be incredibly difficult when you already feel isolated in a new city away from family, so the pressure to drink is even stronger when everything seems to revolve around the dreaded A-word.
When alcohol is involved, inhibitions are low and the part of your brain responsible for judgement is affected. This can lead students to take drugs that they would normally avoid, particularly in student areas where drug dealers are likely to be.
University is promoted as a chance at self-discovery. For the first time, your life is yours and you decide everything that happens in it. This can be a very liberating idea, and it can definitely be a place to flourish, but with this mentality comes the allure of experimentation.
This can be incredibly attractive to inexperienced students who just want to expand their horizons and lead them to question: what’s the harm with trying?
However, when it comes to addictive substances, it can be difficult to stop once you start. Once they’ve experienced a night out with drugs, many people find that a night out just isn’t as fun when they’re not high. This can lead people to start taking drugs regularly when going out and eventually these people might search out that high when things go wrong in their lives.
The initial spiral into addiction can be that easy, but once they’re in it, it's hard to get out. Many students have found that a one-time misjudgement has led to them having to drop out of higher education as they grapple with their addiction.
Universities have taken stands over the years to tackle this growing issue. Earlier this year, University UK launched a task force to help reduce the harm and supply of drugs around students. This is one of many initiatives taken over the years to enforce a zero-tolerance drug policy on campuses following the increase in substance abuse-related deaths following the Covid-19 pandemic.
In-depth studies of statistics surrounding the availability and accessibility of illegal drugs for students will allow university services to know when and where to intervene to reduce the abuse of substances on campus. Through this task force, they’re endeavouring to deconstruct the culture of drug abuse in universities.
There’s a lot of discussion surrounding the correct way to deal with mass drug abuse on campus. Some people think opting for a zero-tolerance policy is best to stamp out the issue, whereas others think that it’s ignorant to assume students won’t do it anyway and that supplying helpful safety information on how to take substances carefully will help decrease fatalities.
It’s a difficult middle ground that these establishments have to balance: not ignoring the problem completely but also not engaging with it to a point of seemingly encouraging. Fundamentally, there needs to be a shift around the language associated with University which can be achieved by promoting and organising more sober-orientated social events.
Edited by Nadia Lincoln.