Drug Abuse in Colleges

College students account for the bulk of opioid users in the United States. Addiction is more common in young adults aged 18 to 26. Students who attend college full-time are twice as likely as people who do not attend college to be substance addicts. Many students experience significant social anxiety at the start of college. Alcohol or narcotics like a weed, in their opinion, make it easier to socialize with others. However, not all students begin drinking or using drugs immediately; they begin with small doses and gradually become addicted. The large numbers of college students abusing drugs can be alluded to several aspects. First, there is the issue of stress. Students face high demands of coursework, internships, social duties among others, a majority of them turn to drugs as a coping mechanism. Others take stimulating drugs such as Adderall, to assist them in staying awake for long hours so that they can study or finish their assignments before the deadlines. Often such stimulants are used without any prescription from a physician. There are some students who abuse drugs just out of curiosity. College is a place where people explore numerous aspects of their lives, and therefore it is common for such exploration to end in drugs. Peer pressure is another issue facing the college students. When they are with people who are experimenting with drugs, they are likely to follow suit.The article titled College Student Drug Prevention: a Review of Individually-Oriented Prevention Strategies by Mary e. Larimer, Jason r. Kilmer, Christine m. lee. has highlighted the college years as the time for the development, advancement of illicit substance abuse. The paper also highlights some of the potential treatment that can be effective. In spite of the prevalent implementation of college drug prevention programs, many studies as depicted in this article shows that it is not as effective as it is projected. Additionally, there is not a lot of research on the best prevention techniques. For alcohol addiction, a lot has been researched on it, and there are many techniques and interventions that can be used. The article also continues to discuss the hindrances that face the implementation as well as an assessment of the interventions on campus. Marijuana is among the top most abused drugs among the college students even though the students have also tried other drugs. Fund for Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) is one of the programs designed to fight the abuse in colleges. College Student Misperceptions of Alcohol and Other Drug Norms among Peers: Exploring Causes, Consequences, And Implications For Prevention Programs is written by H. Wesley Perkins explores the many aspects of drug abuse. The article states that even though the there is enforcement of administration policies as well as health prevention programs, there is no proof that it minimizes alcohol consumption among the students. Since alcohol abuse is prevalent, the paper sought to look into the causes, the greatest being peer influence. Young adults tend to adopt the attitudes of their friends, even though peers are important for socialization purposes; they can really wreck one’s life. The findings on the studies carried out indeed prove that peer influence is the main cause of substance abuse.A misconception of the peer norms adds to the issues of substances abuse in colleges. The author discusses the attribution theory in an attempt to explain the peer misconceptions. This theory centers on how individuals construct elucidations of the occurrences and behaviors. This way they get to learn at what times do they use alcohol and why. Other misperceptions come up because the students think that administration is permissive of drug abuse, but it is not true. This is what actually motivates the students to indulge in substance abuse. Intervening implies targeting the most prone group of students. Workshops may help the student in confronting their misperceptions and stop drug abuse.College Academic Performance and Alcohol and Other Drug Use is another article that focuses on the statistic of campus drug abuse. The article focuses on the effects of drugs as researched on 14000 students. The results show that those who consume alcohol are likely to fall behind in class. There are other consequences of drug use as the article articulates apart from poor performance and skipping classes, drug abuse contributes to students dropping out o school. Alcohol abuse also hampers the image of the school institution as it might start attracting students who love being in high-risk environments. Preventing alcohol abuse means changing the culture of drinking via altering the social, legal, physical atmosphere in the campus and surroundings. This article was written by The Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse and Violence Prevention.Substance Abuse And Pain In A Cohort Of College Students is an article from Research Journal abuse study the predominance of substance abuse in institutions. It looked into the connection between pain and substance abuse. To know this is by looking into the prevalence of pain in students, rates of substance abuse and now analyzing the correlation between pain and substance abuse. 244 understudies from Midwest College participated in the study in the survey. The findings were that a significant percentage of students are might abuse drugs because of insistent pain or lack of pain coping capability. Drug abuse increases as pain increase, therefore those who are at risk of suffering from pain ought to be examined. The health practitioners should inform the students of the link between harmful drugs abuse and pain. The students might be using drugs without knowing they are abusing it.As the articles have articulated, drug abuse is prevalent in campuses, and none of the prevention strategies seems to works. The first instant would be to focus on the causes of this menace. One of the key causes as a majority of the articles state is peer influence. Teaching the students on the impacts of peer influence can help them in choosing the right friends. Other interventions elements include far-reaching print media concentrating on the risk attitudes with regards to substance abuse. There ought to be videotapes encouraging the students to sign up for courses that focus on drug and alcohol prevention. Another invention as the paper suggests numerous college-wide events like substance abuse weeks, sharing of referral information and accessibility of personal drinker check up and finally computerized lifestyle evaluation as for interested persons. Education is also every important. Informing them of the harmful health impacts of substance abuse and drinking may assist the students in making wise choices with regards to alcohol use. By comprehending the negative impacts, they can decide to minimize the consumption of alcohol abuse and stop abusing drugs. Information is power. There is a need also to restrict the availability of alcohol and drugs. Bars and drinking spots around the campus ought to be minimized; heavy advertising prompts the desire to abuse alcohol. The school administers and merchants can also minimize alcohol abuse by enforcing the laws on underage drinking. Denying below 21-year-old to take alcohol, can minimize alcohol abuse. The student sought to be challenged to understand the substance impact. Also offering a variety of alcohol-free social as well as recreational activities goes a long way in preventing drug abuse.A majority of college understudies drink or use substances since they think that they make them sociable and appealing. They think they are “cool.” Dispelling such misconceptions can help in preventing substance abuse. The health professional should also be on the lookout for signs of drug abuse for those suffering from pain. Some might abuse the pain drugs unknowingly. The administration should also enforce a strict no drug policy in school, and those found abusing substances ought to be reprimanded. There is still a long way to go in fighting and preventing drug and substance abuse in colleges. The best way should be maybe to adopt new prevention strategies, since the most articles states, the traditional prevention strategies are not as effective as it should or were projected to.Works CitedBotvin, Gilbert J. "Preventing drug abuse in schools: Social and competence enhancement approaches targeting individual-level etiologic factors." Addictive behaviors 25.6 (2000): 887-897.Ferrer, Elena, et al. "Substance abuse and pain in a cohort of college students." Research Journal of Drug Abuse 2.1 (2015): 1.Larimer, Mary E., Jason R. Kilmer, and Christine M. Lee. "College student drug prevention: A review of individually-oriented prevention strategies." Journal of Drug Issues 35.2 (2005): 431-456.National Research Council. Preventing drug abuse: what do we know?. National Academies Press, 1993.Perkins, H. Wesley. "College student misperceptions of alcohol and other drug norms among peers: Exploring causes, consequences, and implications for prevention programs." Designing alcohol and other drug prevention programs in higher education: Bringing theory into practice (1997): 177-206.The Higher Education Ctr for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention, Education Development Ctr, Inc., and United States of Americ. "College Academic Performance and Alcohol and Other Drug Use." (2003).