Adolescence-a key time for forming habits. The earlier the use of drugs begins, the higher the likelihood of an addiction forming. As teenagers transition from high school to college, there are countless pressures and stressors that may lead an individual to start using drugs. There are social, academic, and family problems that can lead to stress and anxiety. Thousands of students report using opioids for the first time when they attend university. This is no surprise as students are on their own for the first time and the stress of moving away from home, making new friends, and balancing schoolwork can turn young adults toward highly addictive drugs. The question is, how are colleges working to combat growing frug use in their students?
Opioids are the third most abused drug throughout college students, only beat out by alcohol and marijuana. Opioids are also arguable the most dangerous substance abuse that exists today. At large universities, high levels of surveillance for students aren’t sustainable options. Colleges have start implementing preventative and educational measures to better support students who are at risk for developing a drug addiction. Many, however, argue that schools are still not doing enough.
Colleges have found that using a preventative framework yields the best results in the case of the opioid crisis. You may be familiar with this idea, as a prevention framework is often used when developing population health approaches to diseases, such as Covid-19. There are multiple steps to this preventative network. The first is identifying the social and environmental conditions that lead to exasperated drug use. The social and environmental scene of college has been proven to lead to increased drug use. There is no direct supervision from parents or guardians. Constant stressors from schoolwork and societal pressures to fight in can all lead to an individual trying an opioid once, believing they won’t get addicted. Many can attest to the party culture given to most college and universities. With the social and environmental conditions identified, the next step in the preventative framework is to prevent the development of an addictions. This has been done at many schools by enforcing dorm room checks, requiring a stricter resident assistant presence and enhancing the campus police force. Some schools have teamed up with their city or town’s police force to better monitor off-campus students. The next step is to identify an addiction early, followed by providing access to resources that enable a student to manage and recover from an addiction. If students are equipped to see the signs of drug addiction, they may detect an addiction in another student early on. The earlier a drug intervention happens, the higher the chances for recovery. Many colleges offer programs that educate students on signs of addiction and then also resources offered to deal with that addiction. In many cases, however, these programs are mandatory, and many students look the other way. Penn State for example offers short-term counseling and referral services. CAPS also provides brief interventions and short-term treatment for full-time, registered students. This can be found on the CAPs website, but it is nowhere advertised around campus or mentioned at orientation events or in first-year seminar courses. Penn State isn’t the only school like this though. Many universities do offer these resources but do not advertise them or make them easily accessible for their students.
Another approach colleges have taken is an educational approach. Studies have shown that educational and researched based programs can prevent drug addictions in college students. Research-based prevent programs work by not only informing students of how dangerous drug-use can be, but also by giving students tips for how to avoid addiction and access help if needed. By reducing the risk factors of drug use, students are less likely to ever try drugs, significantly reducing the number of students who become addicted to drugs. The biggest struggle of the educational approach is how to implement it. How mandatory should drug awareness course be? How advertised should the on-campus resources be? Many colleges have run into the same problem with mandated course. Students simply don’t care. Countless students believe that they will never use an opioid or become addicted to one. However, he numbers today show that drug addiction is becoming more and more prevalent in college aged individuals. Colleges are struggling with how to implement drug awareness programs that students will actually utilize. Another option for the educational approach is to educate students on how drugs effect the body, especially the brain. In some cases, the brain is not fully developed until age 25. That means that the majority of college students have brains still changing and developing. Drug use can alter brain function and permanently cause damage to areas, such as the frontal lobe, that handle processing information and control personality and behavior. Informing students of these facts can work as motivate against ever using an opioid. The long-term effects are real, and many people don’t think about them when using a drug. Bringing awareness to the dangers is successful way to prevent drug use.
Even with colleges taking steps to help lower drug usage in students more still needs to be done. There is not enough awareness on drug rehabilitation programs and many students will still partake in drug use during their time in college.
Alcohol and Other Drug Concerns | Penn State Student Affairs (psu.edu)
The 5 Most Commonly Abused Drugs in College (americanaddictioncenters.org)
Mckenzie, this was such a powerful read. I loved how you highlight the importance of identifying the social conditions that lead to drug use, as this is often the leading contributor. Preventing the development of addiction and identifying and providing resources for students who may be struggling with addiction is also an excellent approach to mediate this issue. Overall, great job spreading awareness on this growing issue.
I really liked how you highlighted some of the preventative measures that could be taken. I feel like a lot of times people tunnel-vision on treating the symptoms of the issue, not the cause. I definitely agree that we should know the early signs of addiction, because I personally didn’t know about this. People are more likely to listen to people close to them and if they can direct them towards help it may be more effective. I think the main problem lies in the fact that too many people believe that they won’t get addicted, that it won’t happen to them. Obviously this mentality will never completely go away, but if we can emphasize the risk or use other methods to make opioids seem less attractive, it can make people less willing to partake in the first place.
A well researched and well worded response. You touched on multiple angles to show how each approach has their own pros and cons and how they could potentially cover each other’s weaknesses. I like how you used COVID protocol to explain the way prevention works, it really makes the piece relate to the audience and their experience even if they’ve never had any experience with opioids themselves. Your implementation of both the student point of view and the university’s point of view gave the blog post the feel of a deliberation where everyone was sharing their opinions and observations. If you use this topic for your issue this is a good frame to build it from.