About half of full-time college students abuse drugs and alcohol, according to a March 15 report from Columbia University's National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse.
The study, titled "Wasting the Best and Brightest," which polled 2,000 students and 400 administrators between 1993 and 2005, found that 49 percent of full-time college students - nearly 3.8 million students - binge drink and abuse drugs. About 23 percent - or 1.8 million - "met the medical criteria for substance abuse and dependence," almost triple the proportion in the general population.
"It's time to take the high out of higher education," Joseph Califano, the center's chair and a former U.S. secretary of health, education and welfare, said in a statement.
The study found that, since 1993, binge drinking has increased 16 percent and the number of students drinking to get drunk has risen 21 percent. It also said the number of students who drink 10 times or more in a month has increased 25 percent.
At Brown, some students said the drinking problem is partly due to the country's legal drinking age of 21.
Corrie Tan '10, a self-described "social drinker," said the legal drinking age in her home country, Singapore, is 18 - and students abuse alcohol less there because it is more prevalent.
"Underage drinking is not an issue" in Singapore, Tan said.
Tan said students in the United States often drink to get drunk, but young adults in Singapore drink for the taste or for the "warm, fuzzy high," while not going over their limits.
"The drinking age being 21 encourages binge drinking," Meaghan Caulfield '10 said. "The thrill comes from the illegality of it."
The culture was completely different when Caulfield visited Europe, she said. In Spain, she could just "sit around and have a beer" with a group of people without getting drunk.
"Americans, by making the drinking age 21, put this forbidden stigma on it. It's not that way in Europe," Caulfield said.
"I think some students drink as a reaction to the drinking age," said Kristina Jackson, assistant professor of community health at the Brown's Center for Alcohol and Addiction Studies.
Because alcohol is more difficult to obtain for those under 21, underage drinkers consume alcohol less frequently but more heavily than those over 21, she said.
Universities sometimes create programs for incoming students to stress the dangers of drugs and alcohol, she said, but most of the prevention comes in "restricting access and cracking down on bars that have cheap drinks."
In his statement, Califano blamed college administrators for facilitating alcohol abuse. "College presidents, deans and trustees have facilitated a college culture of alcohol and drug abuse that is linked to poor student academic performance, depression, anxiety, suicide, property damage, vandalism, fights and a host of medical problems," he said.
"By failing to become part of the solution, these Pontius Pilate presidents and parents, deans, trustees and alumni have become part of the problem," Califano said.
Caulfield said she thinks drinking is a big part of Brown's culture, mostly because of the large size of its campus. Caulfield was surprised at the lack of alcohol on campus when she visited her sister at Skidmore College, but she said that the scarcity was due mainly to the school's small campus and students' inability to use fake IDs in the area, where students face the harsh penalties for being caught.
"Alcohol certainly has made a leap," said Andre Burnier '10. "There is definitely a difference between now and previous generations - we consume it for the ends and not for the taste."
Burnier said alcohol has become his generation's "drug of choice," compared to the prevalent use of marijuana in the 1960s. Also, he said, it is a "way of breaking the law," though he said it is easy to gain access to alcohol - much more so than when he was in high school.
Along with the increase in alcohol abuse, the study said marijuana use has doubled since 1993 and other illegal drug use has increased 52 percent.
Use of prescription painkillers such as Percocet, Vicodin and OxyContin has increased by 343 percent, and use of tranquilizers like Xanax and Valium has gone up 450 percent, the study found.
And prescription stimulant abuse - including use of Ritalin and Adderall - has risen 93 percent, though one student thinks this figure could be misleading.
"You have to take into account the students that use Adderall to stay up late," Burnier said. These students are not using the drug to get high, he said.
Burnier and Tan said they haven't seen much drug use at Brown, though Caulfield said she thinks the drug culture is just "not as visible" as the drinking culture.
Also, Caulfield said, alcohol is mostly dangerous when students don't know their limits, especially if they did not drink in high school.
Tan said she doesn't think Brown's drinking levels are "out of the ordinary," because college is a "place where people experiment."
