Need to stay up all night and study; take a pill. Have a headache, injury, illness or other problem; take more. That is the solution that some college kids have taken with regard to drug use, and especially prescription use, on campuses.
The cycle starts innocently enough. You have a final or a paper due and have waiting until the last minute. Or you are so overwhelmed about your class schedule and work that you can’t focus. A friend offers you a “solution” in the form of a pill of Adderall. You are told it will help you stay up, increase your concentration and aid in your studying. So, you take it.
Or you have a headache and have to study for a final. A friend recently had a prescription for Vicoden and offers you a few. You take the pills for the headache and find yourself craving them and end up taking more. Maybe you even get your own prescription.
In both instances addiction is something that can happen very easily, quickly and unsuspecting. Drugs, used to solve a problem end up becoming the problem. And that is just two easy examples of why recreational prescription drug use continues to plague college campuses.
The Problem Of Prescriptions
But just how much of a problem is prescription use in colleges?
The last known statistics have reported that more than 15 Americans abuse prescription drugs on a regular basis in the United States alone and this number continues to climb. In fact, this is more than the combined number of people who take heroin, cocaine, hallucinogenic drugs like LSD and inhalants.
Of those that abuse prescription, college kids are some of the most at risk groups out there. Current information states that 6% of students who attend college either full or part time take prescriptions non-medically. In addition to this 22% of college students abuse drugs which include illicit substances like marijuana, methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin.
According to surveys done on this age group, there are a number of reasons why so many college kids decide to use drugs. They include:
• Thinking that drugs are safe and non-addictive because of how they are promoted on social media, in movies and with some friends.
• The idea that they personally will not become addicted or suffer the negative consequences of drug use.
• Lack of education on drugs and addiction during earlier years from either parents, in school or both.
• The thought that a prescription could not harm them because so many people take these drugs legally.
• Feelings of depression, overwhelm or sadness accompanied with the change of life when attending college and the idea that drugs can alleviate this.
In many cases, most in fact, college students started out abusing alcohol or mis-using a prescription. Many also got involved with marijuana. From there, the addiction intensified with addiction following and/or the use of stronger drugs.
What Should Parents Do
Because many kids leave the home to attend college, parents often feel helpless as of what to do if an addiction problem comes up. The first solution is to talk to your kids before they are college aged about the dangers of drugs.
If they do become addicted get them to seek immediate help. For more information contact us today.
