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Marijuana Use Among Students at Institutions of
Higher Education
The Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention
This article can be found at:
http://www.campusblues.com/drugs8.asp (External Site)
Marijuana is the most frequently used
illicit drug in the United States, with approximately 33 percent (72 million)
of all Americans having tried it at least once in their lifetime.1
Following a decade of decline in the 1980s, the use of marijuana among youth
has risen since the early 1990s. Of additional concern, studies have found
that "nearly all adolescents who use illicit drugs other than marijuana also
used marijuana. The proportions of those who used other illicit drugs prior to
(or without any) marijuana use are for the most part less than 5 percent."2
Frequent marijuana use may be physically and emotionally harmful and is also
associated with a host of other social and behavioral problems, including
isolation, poor academic performance, violence, and crime.
College Use
The Core Institute’s annual data on alcohol and
other drug use at colleges and universities indicate that the trend of
increased marijuana use holds true among college students. According to this
data, annual usage (defined as the prevalence of use in the last year) among
college students has steadily increased since 1990.
The Harvard School of Public Health
conducted three surveys between 1993
and 1999, examining the drug and alcohol
use of 44,265 college students nationwide.4 The study found that 9 out of 10
students (91 percent) who use marijuana participate in other high-risk
activities such as heavy drinking or cigarette smoking.
Core Institute 1995–1996 data also
suggest that marijuana use is higher among students who engage in other
high-risk behaviors. For example, comparing marijuana users with nonusers,
98.7 percent versus 75.4 percent had also used alcohol, 75.7 percent versus
30.2 had used tobacco, 30.5 percent versus 12.5 percent had drunk alcohol the
last time they had sexual intercourse, and 13.3 percent versus 0.7 percent
used other drugs the last time they had sexual intercourse.3
According to the Harvard study, other
factors associated with marijuana use include spending more time at parties
and socializing with friends, spending less time studying, and perceiving
religion and community service as not important. Students at large schools,
commuter schools, and coeducational schools were also more likely to use
marijuana, while students from historically black colleges and colleges in
small or rural towns were less likely to use the drug. Marijuana use was also
associated with poorer academic performance. Students who used marijuana
were less likely than those who did not use it to study for two or more
hours a day and were more likely to have a grade point average of B or less.
1
National
Institute on Drug Abuse: Marijuana Update. (October 26, 2001); (External
Site)2 Mackesy-Amiti, M. E.;
Fendrich, M.; and Goldstein, P. J. "Sequence of Drug Use Among Serious Drug
Users: Typical vs. Atypical Progression," Drug and Alcohol Dependence 45
(1997): 185–196; 3
Core
Institute. Statistics on Alcohol and Other Drug Use on American Campuses;
(External site)
figures for 1995–96, 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2000 (Carbondale, Ill.: The Core
Institute, Southern Illinois University, 1999); 4
Gledhill-Hoyt, J.; Lee, H.; Strote, J.; Wechsler, H. "Increased Use of
Marijuana and Other Illicit Drugs at U.S. Colleges in the 1990s: Results of
Three National Surveys," Addiction 95, no. 11 (2000): 1655–1667;
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