Study shows increase in prescription drug use in colleges
Experts say there is an increase of prescription pills around exams.
Published Dec. 11, 2008
College students now use prescription drugs more than any other illicit drugs, excluding marijuana and exams are often a time in which students pop a pill or two for an advantage, according to recent studies.
A Sept. 3 study published by the National Institute on Drug Abuse found that college freshmen think prescription pills are more harmful than drugs like alcohol and marijuana but significantly less harmful than drugs like cocaine and heroin.
However, according to Sulaiman Beg of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, that does not stop 3.1 percent of students from using opioids, 2.9 percent of students from using prescription stimulants such as Adderall, and 2.2 percent of students from using tranquilizers.
Slightly more than a quarter of 1,250 first year undergraduates from what the NIDA study described as a "large public university in the mid-Atlantic" equated occasional prescription drug use with great risk. Just 17 percent listed occasionally having more than five drinks as great risk and just seven percent described smoking marijuana as a great risk, while 72 percent put using cocaine in the great risk category.
At MU, students are aware of prescription drug abuse and said they can see more students using around exams.
"Being prescribed to Adderall during finals week, you get asked a lot of questions with people seeing if they can borrow some or buy some and I mean, it's illegal," said Dylan Walker, a freshman who is prescribed the drug. "But some people think that Adderall and other substitutes for it will give them that extra edge, will help them focus more."
Junior Chris Collier said Adderall is readily available and that most students would know where to get it.
"If I wanted it, I'd know at least 30 people who would be able to get Adderall," he said.
Walker echoed Collier's opinion that most students would know where to find prescription stimulants.
"I'd say the average person has at least 20 people in their contact book in their phone who would be prescribed Adderall or would be able to get it," Walker said.
Beg said it is reasonable to expect misuse of these drugs might increase around exam time.
"First, almost half of college students report that they misuse these drugs to reduce stress," he said. "Second, college students report that they misuse stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall as study aids."
Walker said he does not believe most students are using prescription drugs.
"You don't go to places where people are just popping pills," he said. "You go places where people are playing beer pong, it's socially acceptable."
MU officials were not particularly surprised at the study's findings, though they noted Missouri student behavior might be slightly different than what the study concluded.
Wellness Resource Center Director Kim Dude said the center does not poll students on the degree of risk they attribute to any particular drug or the frequency with which students use, but they do survey students on what types of drugs they are using.
Dude said she believes the number of students who use prescription medication, even around exam time, is significantly less than those who drink alcohol.
After alcohol, which Dude estimated 80 percent of students try, the Wellness Center believes tobacco is the number two drug of choice at MU, followed by marijuana, with 6.6 percent of students using regularly and many more occasionally, and then prescription drugs.
Eight percent of students at MU have used prescription painkillers in the last year, and about seven percent have used stimulants in that period, though Dude stressed they had no information on how often those students used those drugs or whether they were prescribed them.
Dude said she does not know that there is a "surge," in terms of volume of prescription drug use around exams, but that she believes students are more concerned about prescription medication now than before because the media talks about it more.