Drug and Alcohol Use on College Campuses

1892 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay on prevention of substance abuse

Drug abuse has always been a problem in college and it is increasing more each year. Drugs are being used by students to alleviate stress and to get a break from the high demand put on them by classes, and also to focus on their studies in order to learn the material that they are being taught. Substance abuse is the biggest drug problem on college campuses. Alcohol is a drug and is included when drugs are mentioned. Drugs are so prevalent and widely-used on college campuses around the country for various reasons, but it is important that we reduce the amount of drug abuse by students. It is important that we prevent substance and drug abuse by college students because it is affecting the safety, learning, and success of all college students around the nation. Results of substance and drug abuse can range from missing class and failing exams to being sexually assaulted or even death. Each year, approximately 1,700 students enrolled in two- and four-year institutions die from alcohol-related causes, mostly due to motor vehicle crashes (Barry and Cell 2-2). More than 600,000 students are hit or assaulted by another drinking student, while an estimated 97,000 are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape (Barry and Cell 2-2). Sexual violence is a very serious problem on college campuses and many times goes unreported. This is because of the stigma that has been created in college that reporting a sexual assault is a negative thing. This is all centered on the perception or image of the institution, preserving future enrollment and money. Colleges and universities want to impress politicians, alumni, media, community members, parents, and most importantly incoming freshman, so they would want to... ... middle of paper ... ...about all the popular types of drugs among young people. Then, it compares drugs to alcohol in terms of their effects and why parents are scared of their children trying them. It also discusses ways of preventing youth from starting drugs and ways to detect early signs that could lead them to taking drugs or show that they have started. I chose this source because I think that it gives an accurate informative account on what exactly the drugs are that are being used, what their effects are, and how they can be detected. I think it is also significant that parents know how to prevent their children from starting drugs or stop them from doing them before they become strongly addicted. This is important to my topic because it introduces methods of prevention before college which can help protect them throughout college and reduce the amount of drugs on campuses.

Show More
Related

  • College Students and Their Lives of Drinking

    3787 Words  | 8 Pages

    ...them when they take just one drink of alcohol, even if it is just one shot or one beer, it affect you. Most college student drink to socialize and that is not a good thing to do. When a students, or anyone, drink to be social there are more likely to have more then what they intended. Alcohol will affect the way that students think, feel, act, and socialize with others. Drink is a dangers action to participate in but that is a choice that one needs to make on their own. It is always fun at the time, but at that same time one does not think that they are permanently arming to their bodies. Whether children and teens drink 15,25 or even 30 percent of the alcohol consumed, the reality is that America has an underage drinking epidemic and alcohol is by far the drug most used by children and teens and poses the greatest threat to their well-being” (Underage, CNN.com pg2).

    Read More

  • College Students and Alcohol

    1142 Words  | 3 Pages

    Although high-risk drinkers are a minority in all ethnic groups, their behavior is far from a harmless “rite of passage.” In fact, drinking has pervasive consequences that compel our attention. The most serious consequence of high-risk college drinking is death. The U.S. Department of Education has evidence that at least 84 college students have died since 1996 because of alcohol poisoning or related injury—and they believe the actual total is higher because of incomplete reporting. When alcohol-related traffic crashes and off-campus injuries are taken into consideration, it is estimated that over 1,400 college students die each year from alcohol-related unintentional injuries. Additionally, over 500,000 full-time students sustain nonfatal unintentional injuries, and 600,000 are hit or assaulted by another student who has been drinking. Administrators are well aware of the burden alcohol presents to the campus environment. In addition, the 1997, 1999, and 2001 Harvard surveys found that the majority of students living in dorms and Greek residences, who do not drink excessively, still experience day-to-day problems as a result of other students’ misuse of alcohol. The prevalence of these “secondhand effects” varies across ...

    Read More

  • Peer Effects and Alcohol Use among College Students, by M. Kremer and D. Levy,

    544 Words  | 2 Pages

    Kremer and Levy (2008) analyze to what degree college students who consume alcohol influence their peers. College students could affect their peers’ alcohol consumption, which in turn may lead to damaging effects. For example, peers could potentially disrupt classrooms, be exposed to disease, and lower their grade point average, start binge drinking, abuse illegal drugs, and even die. These affects may generate multiplier effects in the future.

    Read More

  • Rape In College Essay

    690 Words  | 2 Pages

    A. Background Information: The next four years of the students’ lives after high school mark the moment they become independent. Because of the freedom, college students are more susceptible to careless actions like drinking, doing drugs, and even committing sexualt assualt. Sexual assault has been around for years and the actions to prevent this heinous crime has been minimal, especially in colleges and universities. In 2015, Brock Turner, a student from Stanford, sexually assaulted a young woman on campus. Turner claimed that because he was drinking, was with friends, and saw a “promiscuous” female student, that pressured him into committing such a heinous crime. This was because Stanford University didn’t teach its students sexual assault prevention which caused the victim to be harm and violated. By teaching college students about sexual assault prevention, it decreases the number of sexual assault cases on campus, prevents psychological damage to the victim’s mental state, and educates other students to know the signs

    Read More

  • Sexual Assault In College Campus Essay

    579 Words  | 2 Pages

    The highest cause of sexual assault on college campus is alcohol use. Alcohol decreases a person’s ability to fight off an attack. It also can make the attacker more aggressive and unable to clearly interpret the victims’ interest in them sexually (“Alcohol Use”). In the research article Alcohol Use Increases the Risk of Sexual Assault, “A study of sexual assault victims – half of whom were college students – found that women who were drinking when an assault took place reported that their intoxication made them take risks they would normally avo...

    Read More

  • Binge Drinking Among College Students

    446 Words  | 1 Pages

    We all know what it is like to wake up in the morning, with our head aching, and our body feeling like it was just hit by a train. College students world wide know this feeling. These are the results of binge drinking. The question of why college students continue to submit themselves to alcohol is unknown. While many reasons are given, the cause generally falls into one of three categories, peer pressure, insecurity, or to help solve there problems. But the one thing students don’t realize are the consequences and effects that binge drinking can have, health and social problems are just a few.

    Read More

  • College Drinking

    697 Words  | 2 Pages

    In recent studies by U.S News and World Report, college campuses are turning off the tap. In other words banning alcohol entirely. One of the reasons for the banning of alcohol on campus is due to the outstanding reports of alcohol related incidents that have taken the lives of students. September of 97’, Scott Krueger, and eighteen-year-old freshman at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, died from alcohol poisoning while at a Phi Gamma Delta initiation event.(Reisberg, 1) The lack of action taken by MIT caused the students’ parents to sue them for their irresponsibility.(Reisberg, 2) Another accident that occurred due to alcohol was to a twenty-year-old Louisiana State University student named Benjamin Wynne. Wynne had apparen...

    Read More

  • Teenage Prescription Drug Abuse

    1434 Words  | 3 Pages

    Years ago, the common image of an adolescent drug abuser was a teen trying to escape from reality on illegal substances like cocaine, heroin, or marijuana. Today, there is a great discrepancy between that perception and the reality of who is likely to abuse drugs. A teenage drug abuser might not have to look any further than his or her parent’s medicine chest to ‘score.’ Prescription drug abuse by teens is on the rise. Also, teens are looking to prescription drugs to fulfill different needs other than to feel good or escape the pressures of adulthood. Teens may be just as likely to resort to drugs with ‘speedy’ side effects, like Ritalin to help them study longer, as they are to use prescription painkillers to check out of reality. Pressures on teens are growing, to succeed in sports or to get high grades to get into a good college (Pressures on today’s teens, 2008, theantidrug). Furthermore, because prescriptions drugs are prescribed by doctors they are less likely to be seen as deleterious to teens’ health. A lack of awareness of the problem on the part of teens, parents and society in general, the over-medication of America, and the greater stresses and pressures put upon teens in the modern world have all conspired to create the growing problem of prescription drug abuse by teens.

    Read More

  • The Prescription Drug Abuse Crisis

    1696 Words  | 4 Pages

    Drugs cause an overall disturbance in a subjects’ physiological, psychological and emotional health. “At the individual level, drug abuse creates health hazards for the user, affecting the educational and general development of youths in particular” (“Fresh Challenge”). In youth specifically, drug abuse can be triggered by factors such as: a parent’s abusive behavior, poor social skills, family history of alcoholism or substance abuse, the divorce of parents or guardians, poverty, the death of a loved one, or even because they are being bullied at school (“Drugs, brains, and behavior”) .

    Read More

  • Alcohol Abuse Among College Students and Possible Solutions

    2195 Words  | 5 Pages

    One of the biggest problems with educational institutions in the United States is alcohol abuse among college students. College students across the United States including Georgia Southern University end up missing class, having unprotected sex, damaging property, and getting injured as a result of abusing alcohol. Also the health risks involved with binge or excessive drinking is very prevalent and risky for any college student who chooses to abuse alcohol. Besides alcohol poisoning, there are many cancers and diseases associated with alcohol abuse that ultimately lead to death. Liver cancer, breast cancer, and skin cancer can all be associated with alcohol abuse (Drinking: A Students Guide, 2001). Also heart and liver disease can be associated with alcohol abuse (Drinking: A Students Guide, 2001). Ultimately the over all wellness among Colleges and Universities in the United States drops dramatically when alcohol is abused. The abuse of alcohol among college students has a direct co...

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Teenage Drug Use

    1098 Words  | 3 Pages

    I once read in an article “Some teens use alcohol or drugs to dull the pain in their lives. When they are given a choice to take something to make them temporarily feel better, many cannot resist” (Look). The use of drugs will [affect] the everyday lives of many teenagers today. Throughout history more and more teenagers have turned to the use of drugs to help them through their everyday struggle.

    Read More

  • Binge Drinking Essay

    1111 Words  | 3 Pages

    According to National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, more than 1,800 college students die from alcohol-related causes every year, while about 800,000 are being assaulted by other students because of drinking. About one in every four college students who binge drink also admit that they have experienced academic problems. Binge drinking is drinking multiple drinks in just a few hours to get drunk. Despite the fact that college drinking has caused many issues, it has not been stopped, yet. In article, “Why Colleges Haven’t Stopped Binge Drinking,” McMurtrie (2014) explains that this issue has not been resolved yet because many people still see alcohol abuse as general issue instead of seeing it an individual behavior. Because colleges

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Alcohol And Alcohol

    1436 Words  | 3 Pages

    College, a place once populated by contemplative students, has experienced an unexpected twist over the past few years: 1,825 deaths, 599,000 injuries, 696,000 assaults, and 97,000 cases of sexual abuse (College Drinking ). These are such drastic numbers, but there is only one reason for all these corrupted acts of society: alcohol. Abusing the privileges of alcohol corrupts students’ mind, intellectually and socially.

    Read More

  • Alcoholism Essay

    1695 Words  | 4 Pages

    College students have been known to be reckless and also be associated with alcohol abuse because of all the destruction they cause when they throw a party or have an event going on that contains alcohol.

    Read More

  • Say No To Drugs!

    423 Words  | 1 Pages

    Few people deny the dangers of drug use, while many teens are curious about drugs. They should stay away from drugs because drugs affect our health, lead to academic failure, and jeopardizes safety. Drugs are used from a long period of time in many countries. The concentration of drugs has increased from late 1960’s and 1970’s. Drugs can quickly takeover our lives. Friends and acquaintance have the greatest influence of using drugs during adolescence.

    Read More

More about Drug and Alcohol Use on College Campuses

Open Document