HEAL405-Y01 Drugs in Society

Strategies for Substance Abuse Prevention in Colleges and Universities: Marijuana

A Project Presented By

NICOLE PEREIRA #15

In Partial Fulfilment for the Requirement of HEAL 405-001 Drugs in Society

DUE: December 11, 2015

SEMESTER: Fall

Table of Contents

Section
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.

Page
Introduction
Review of Literature
Methodology
Results
Summary of Conclusion
References

3-4
4-6
7
8
9
10

I.

Introduction
A. The Problem Being Researched
It is believed that when teenagers go to college they are going to essentially be up to no

good because they are fully free to party, drink, smoke, and do whatever it is they desire. The
most common drug is believed to be alcohol on campuses because at parties people alter their
behavior, and let loose by drinking liquor; however, one drug that is growing on campuses is
marijuana. With its access being as easy as a text or phone call away, and its price being
reasonable college students look to it alter their behavior. New York Daily News reports that six
percent of college students are believed to have smoked weed at least twenty times in the past
thirty days. The reason for the increase of marijuana use is believed to be because the dangers of
smoking cigarettes is becoming more known to people of younger ages. Essentially, marijuana is
becoming a substitute for cigarettes.
B. Epidemiology of Marijuana
Marijuana is a growing problem in United States colleges, over thirty four percent of
students admitted to using marijuana at least once in the past year as opposed to students who
used cocaine which is just a little over four percent. Students are avoiding using illicit drugs on
campuses because of their cost and as well as the dangers they come with.
The use of marijuana grows more and more every year in 2000 was so low that now the
rates of marijuana are completely absurd. The use of marijuana is at its highest since 1980, and
only continues to grow, with is being at a high ten point one percent of students that use the drug
daily. This is a problem that needs to be fixed. Not only are students that live at colleges using
this drug but so are the ones commuting, the problem is not because students live away from
their parents but because of the easy access to this drug. While the rates of marijuana use among
3

college students is going up, the rate for college students using alcohol in the past thirty days is
decreasing it has gone from sixty seven percent in 2000 to sixty three percent in 2014 as reported
by the University of Michigan.
C. Reasoning for the Research
The reason for so much research being done is because of the increasing rates of the use
of the illegal drug among everyone, and in this case especially college students. By doing this
research people can see what drugs are being used the most and in how many amounts. Using the
statistics of the how many people use the drug, researchers can determine the reasoning behind
the elevated usage of marijuana. This can be used to find a solution to the problem, which can
either be enforcing certain laws or by removing laws completely. Personally, I believe that the
best approach to stop the overuse of marijuana would be to give people the freedom to use it in a
safe way. My hypothesis is that people are more prone to using drugs when they are illegal
because they want that adrenaline rush of doing something risky and illegal.
II.

Review of Literature
A. Marijuana Prevention Programs that have been Ineffective
Gilbert Botvin, Ph.D., director of Cornell University Medical Center's Institute for

Prevention Research states that the reason for many prevention programs not working is simply
because these programs rely on the fact that students basically use drugs or smoke cigarettes
because they don't know any better. By assuming this prevention programs are not getting to the
root of the issue. Botvin believes that the way adults try to teach students about the dangers of
drug use, in this case marijuana, by beating a dead horse and repeating the same things drugs
can kill you, drugs arent good for your health, and many other terms that we have all heard
millions of times already. Because of the excessive use of marijuana students arent going to
4

believe the things being said to them. They are going to see that their peers are smoking
marijuana and nothing is happening to them, their peers arent dying once they smoke marijuana
and so all of the information that has been given to them is forgotten; however, many of these
affects come years later, and are slowly becoming more and more intense for the person
smoking.
Many times drugs are used by college students because they are trying to fit in with
everyone else, being in a new place and having to make new friends makes college students
more vulnerable, thus making it more common for students to fall under peer pressure.
Drugabuse.gov states that people, especially students are more likely to start drugs when
changing schools. Typically the stress of a new location could be the reasoning for this. This is
true for a student at any age, when going into college this is a major change for students; they are
leaving the comfort of their home, leaving their families, and starting the transition to live on
their own.
B. Possible Successful Prevention Strategies for Marijuana
There are various prevention of the drug is successful, for example, starting prevention at
an early age, and letting children know of the dangers. Many times, the dangers of drugs are not
explained easily, the way a parent should inform their child about marijuana, is letting them
know at an early age, then by answering any and all questions their child has about the drug. This
is a way that defies the fact of over exaggerated the same things about the drug, giving teenagers
basic knowledge of the side effects of the drug, and all of the harm it causes will give them the
information they need, then towards the future, teenagers will think of more questions and will
begin to learn more about the drug, and then can ask questions on their own.

Think about it, as a student when a teacher repeats themselves over and over again, what
they are saying tends to go in one ear and then out the other. Students do not want to hear the
same things, however when a teachers gives students new information questions will arise.
Students will then ask what comes to mind and receive more information like that.
There are a variety of risks that come with marijuana use, many that are common to the
knowledge of many, and others that are not so common, for example the increase rate of suicide
that comes to those who have started using marijuana at a young age, around the age or eighteen,
the same age of students entering college. In order to stop this from happening there needs to be
a way to prevent it. I believe that legalizing a safe amount would substantially decrease the rates
of marijuana use. Portugal legalized drugs in their country and since then the rates for people
who use drugs has dropped substantially. I believe that this would be the same around colleges
nationwide.
The reasoning for college students using illicit drugs is believed to be because of the fact
of them being something that they essentially cannot have as said by medicinenet.com. The legal
drinking age in the United States is 21 although many people start drinking before then, what I
believe is that there are more people drinking in risky amounts before the age of 21, however,
once people reach 21 they drink in a safer manner because it is no longer illegal. Personally, I
think that there should be a legal amount for using marijuana that can be used by people at the
age of 18 or older. Smoking in the United States is legal at the age of eighteen, if smoking
tobacco is legal, and just as dangerous then there is no harm for marijuana to be legal.
III.

Methodology

In order to write this paper there were many things that needed to be done before writing.
I first needed to research drugs that are being used substantially on campuses; there were many,
from alcohol, to heroin and cocaine. However, one that I found that came up a variety of times
was marijuana. From personal experience I have found that this is true, marijuana is very
commonly used within campuses across the country including the one I attend. My next step
involved more in depth research, I needed to obtain more information about this drug. I looked
up information that involved statistics: how many times the drugs is used on campuses monthly,
ages that are most common for the drug to be used, and various numerical questions. I looked up
programs that failed in the past to stop using this drug, and information on those that worked.
The third step to writing this paper was when I began to write, I started by creating a
cover page, and then a table of contents. My introduction included the majority of the initial
information I gathered. It also included where marijuana was being used, and how it is being
used more significantly, I also compared its use to the use of other drugs. Next, I elaborated on
the information I found on ways that preventing marijuana use has not work. The biggest part of
this paper was coming up with an effective way for college students to stop using marijuana, I
wrote what I thought would work from the information I gathered on effective programs. In
order to come up with my plan I put various programs, and strategies together that I believed
could work together. Finally, I concluded all the strategies as well as the other information I
found. Because this paper required to also have a power point presentation to go along with it, I
put all the information I had on this paper together in order to complete that power point. To
make sure I was not stealing any information and writing it as my own I will cite all of the
websites I gathered information from at the end of this paper.
IV.

Results
7

From the results I obtained I came to conclude that there was a negative outcome that
came from repeating the effects and dangers of the drug. Not only does it irritate the person that
it is being told to, but it also does not help in preventing from use of the drug. There is also a lack
of understanding in addiction prevention programs because the majority of them believe that the
reason from drug use among college students is because of the lack of knowledge they have,
because they dont know better as Botvin stated in his article. This results in a failed attempt to
prevent the drug because they are not going to treat it like a serious problem.
In order to get program to work, or a strategy to work there needs to be a way to get
students to understand the dangers of marijuana without being repetitive because that is a
strategy has resulted in failure in the past. The best way to get students to understand the dangers
is by giving them basic information, and even using real life stories to get them to better
understand the drug and then allow them to ask the questions they want about the drug. Another
strategy to decrease the substantial growth of the use of the drug is to legalize a certain amount,
thus preventing the rush students get from doing something illegal. Whether it is legal or not
students are still going to use it, by legalizing the drug there is some control on it and there is a
safety measure put on.

V.

Summary and Conclusion

There are many college students across the country using illicit drugs without knowledge

of their harm. One drug that is used more often than others is marijuana. This drug is used
because of its easy access and the high that comes with it. College students use this drug in order
to get away from certain problems, to fit in, to get high, and for a multitude of other reasons.
The use of this drug starts at a very early age, usually at the ae of eighteen and can lead students
to depression, and even worse, death.
While the use of alcohol among college students is decreasing the use of marijuana is
increasing. Over thirty four percent of students admitted to using marijuana at least once in the
past month. This rate is already high and only increasing, there needs to be a way to bring it
down. In order to do that there needs to be a new strategy that will be effective.
There are various strategies that have not worked, for example repeating the same thing
to students about the dangers of marijuana. This becomes boring and it will irritate students.
Instead of doing that people should begin letting children know about the drug at an early age
and be open to answering any questions they have about marijuana. Another way to prevent the
rate of the use of the drug from going up would be to legalize a safe amount of marijuana for
people to use at a certain age. By doing this there is less of a rushing of doing something illegal
like using an illicit drug.

VI.

References

College students smoke marijuana more than cigarettes: Study. (2015, September 1). Retrieved
December 11, 2015, from http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/college-studentssmoke-marijuana-cigarettes-study-article-1.2344303

Edwards, R. (2015, November 19). Marijuana Symptoms, Causes, Treatment - Where can people
find more information about marijuana abuse and addiction? - MedicineNet. Retrieved
December 11, 2015, from http://www.medicinenet.com/marijuana/page8.htm

Firshein, J. (1993, April 9). Close to Home - Prevention: What Hasn't Worked. Retrieved
December 11, 2015, from
http://www.thirteen.org/closetohome/prevention/html/whathasnt.html

Preventing Drug Abuse: The Best Strategy. (2014, July 1). Retrieved December 11, 2015, from
http://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/drugs-brains-behavior-scienceaddiction/preventing-drug-abuse-best-strategy

Wadley, J. (2015, September 1). Daily marijuana use among U.S. college students highest since
1980 | University of Michigan News. Retrieved December 11, 2015, from
http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/23088-daily-marijuana-use-among-u-s-college-studentshighest-since-1980

10