College has long been regarded as a time of self-discovery - a path that is often realized through experimentation using trial and error. While alcohol and marijuana have been present in the college social scene for decades, in recent years students have been turning to prescription drugs in their quest to experiment.
While, according to Tufts Alcohol and Drug Treatment Specialist Jeanne Haley, alcohol is "the most abused drug on campus," other substances are becoming readily apparent at Tufts and across the nation.
Last October, the Daily published an article about the rising use of heroin in Somerville. While the areas surrounding Tufts had experienced greater heroin use at the time, it was OxyContin, a prescription painkiller considered a "gateway" to heroin, that was more popular on campus itself, according to Haley.
Shirley Haberman, chair elect for the American College Health Association's (ACHA) Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Coalition, said that many students are looking no further than their peers' medicine cabinets to get a fix.
"There are so many different prescription drugs out there, but based on [The University of Michigan's 'Monitoring the Future' Study], roughly 10 percent of college students use non-medical prescription drug products," she said,
Stacy Andes, chair of the ACHA's Alcohol, Tobacco and Other Drug Coalition, agreed with the results of the study.
"When compared with their peers not attending college, evidence suggests that college students are illicitly using prescription drugs at higher rates," she said.
Experts have found a variety of reasons to account for such drug use. According to a statement issued by the Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Other Drug Prevention, the number of first-year college students who arrive with symptoms of anxiety and/or depression is rising. These students tend to be the ones who "are more likely than their peers to use alcohol or other drugs" at college.
But that isn't to say that college students who don't experience anxiety or depression aren't experimenting. Dangerous experimentation, Andes said, is built into our culture.
"In Western societies, the experience of young adulthood is often characterized as a moratorium in which one is expected to formulate an identity in an environment which provides a safety net for mistakes," she said. "Unfortunately, the safety net for mistakes, often called college, provides a tradition rich with poor decision-making around alcohol and other drugs."
While the statistics suggest that Tufts shouldn't fall far from the overarching trend, students had mixed views on whether or not prescription drugs are dominant on campus.
"I don't see a whole lot of prescription drug use on the Tufts campus. It doesn't really seem that prevalent here," sophomore Mara James said.
But others begged to differ. Sophomore Josh*, who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the topic, said he sees a relatively large contingent of prescription drug abusers on the hill.
"I definitely know a fair amount of people who abuse prescription drugs here on campus. Adderall and Ritalin are clearly the forerunning drugs used here, but there is definitely a whole group of students who abuse other prescription drugs, like Xanax and Ambien," said Josh. "Those drugs are very easy to find here."
Xanax is a drug prescribed to treat anxiety disorders, while Ambien is a sleeping pill. After taking Ambien, recreational users can fight the urge to fall asleep in order to achieve euphoric or hallucinogenic effects.
Andes explained how such prescription drugs on college campuses are becoming increasingly easy to find because of the fact that they are legal at the prescription's onset.
"Many undergraduate students are gaining access to prescription drugs from peers who are legally prescribed medications," said Andes.
Haley also explained that some students may be using the same drugs they were once prescribed, even after the original pain has disappeared.
"Prescription drugs can be dangerous in that students don't consider them drugs, but medicine. Students often say, 'My doctor gave me those Percoset.' However, the doctor prescribed the medicine for pain management, and the student now uses it recreationally after the pain is gone," Haley told the Daily in an e-mail.
Andes listed a general sense of unawareness among students about the risks of usage as a prime reason why non-medical prescription drug use has become such an issue in recent years.
"With record numbers of college students arriving on today's college campuses with legitimate prescription medications of their own, the opportunities for non-medical prescription drug use (NMPDU), coupled with a general ignorance about the associated risks, have combined to create an emerging college student health issue," she said.
Although the ease of access undoubtedly accounts for students' ability to attain prescription drugs, it is the sense of "general ignorance" that drives so many students to experiment with such drugs.
Andes explained such ignorance on a basic level.
"First, the culture of pharmacology is characterized by a perception of safety. Second, the adolescent belief in immortality furthers the misperception of the relative safety of pharming.
Additionally, the negative side effects of non-medical use are not threatening or long-lasting enough to generate fear in the user," she said.
Another class of substance that shares many similar usage patterns to prescription drugs is that of over-the-counter medication. DXM, short for Dextromethorphan, a cough-suppressant drug found in over-the-counter cold medication (i.e. Robitussin), has created its own niche of users who seek the drunk-like feeling associated with taking a dosage much higher than what's recommended.
Drugs like DXM differ from prescription drugs, however, because they can be obtained at local pharmacies, and end up costing the user little more than a couple of dollars.
Tufts freshman Andy,* who wished to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the topic, explained his recent experimentation with DXM.
"When I experimented with DXM, I had to chug a six-ounce bottle of Robitussin to get high," said Andy. "I remember feeling really tired, like I was asleep but not asleep: It was similar to how you feel when you stay awake after taking a sleeping pill."
However, Andy explains the "high" as not being much different from that felt after a night of heavy drinking.
"Of all the hallucinogenics I've done, DXM's effects were the most similar to being drunk," Andy said.
But while alcohol, marijuana and prescription drug abuse have created substantial influence on campuses, it doesn't seem as if over-the-counter drugs have fully permeated the collegiate community.
"I don't know anyone that's got prevalent data on DXM usage among college students, but I'd venture to say [the usage level] is probably very low," Haberman said.
*Names have been changed.
