A newly released report from the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, says that the rate of students drinking excessively and using illegal and prescription drugs has increased.
"CASA first looked at the issue of substance abuse on college campuses in 1993 and 1994 and made many recommendations for addressing the problem," said Susan Foster, the Vice President of Division and Policy Research and Analysis of CASA. "We were interested in understanding what, if anything, had changed from that time."
The 200-plus page report, called "Wasting the Best and the Brightest," took four years to complete and used 2,000 students from 400 colleges and universities in its surveys, interviews and focus groups. They also reviewed about 800 articles.
"This is a snapshot of college students - the college situation - today," Joseph Califano Jr., the chairman and CEO of CASA, said in a press release last week.
The study states that from 1993 to 2005, the percentage of college students who drink has remained at 70 percent.
Also, about half of traditional full-time college students (49.4 percent) binge drink each month, according to the report.
Binge drinking was defined as four drinks in a row for women and five for men.
In 2005, nearly 1 in 4 college students met the medical criteria for substance abuse or dependence, which is nearly triple the proportion of the general population.
Also, the rate of students who use prescription painkillers like Percocet and Vicodin is up 343 percent.
Using stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall is up 93 percent.
The number of students who use tranquilizers like Xanax and Valium is up 450 percent.
And, abusing sedatives like Nembutal and Seconal is up 225 percent.
The study also says that daily marijuana use among students has more than doubled from 1.9 percent to 4 percent of students, and that use of other illegal drugs has gone up 52 percent from 5.4 percent to 8.2 percent.
The report, which was founded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and about 20 Greek organizations, including ones with chapters at The University of Memphis like Phi Mu, Alpha Tau Omega, Alpha Gamma Delta, Delta Zeta, and Phi Beta Phi, found a higher rate of drinking in students in a sorority or fraternity.
Terrion Jamison, a freshman exercise and sports science major, said he believed people in Greek and athletic programs were more likely to use alcohol.
"I think they have special privileges - more so than regular student," he said.
It also found a higher rate of students who lived in Greek housing.
The study said that white students were more likely to drink than minority students and found a lower rate of drinking at historically black colleges and universities.
The Institute of Substance Abuse and Evaluation at The U of M has reported that white residents of Tennessee were more likely to use alcohol than black residents.
Their report found that blacks were more likely to abuse cocaine.
The CASA report also states that the negative consequences of alcohol and drug abuse are on the rise.
They include property damage, vandalism, fights, rape, assaults, sexual assaults and arrests.
The report placed blame on college administrators for facilitating a "college culture of alcohol and drug abuse that is linked to poor student academic perfomance, depression, anxiety, suicide, property damage, vandalism, fights and a host of medical problems."
Califano said these problems could be due to American cultural problems.
"There has been an acceptance in this country and by them of kind of a college culture of substance abuse," Califano said. "These kids are in college - they are just going to drink and do their stuff."
It also calls on parents, Greeks, athletic organizations, alumni, the state and federal governments, advertisers and students themselves to change things.
The report includes several suggestions to implement including removing all alcohol from NCAA broadcasts.
"It sounds good to me," said Marshall Simpson, freshman psychology major. "I don't believe in drinking myself."
However, some students did not believe the banning idea would ever occur.
"I don't think that that's going to happen because they make a lot of money off of it," Jamison said.
Califano suggested that alcohol advertising be banned from campuses and student newspapers and that classes should be extended to run the whole week, even Saturday in some cases.
"I don't think that will work because if they want to drink, they still will drink after class," Jamison said.
