Reuters
WASHINGTON - About half of U.S. college students binge drink or abuse drugs, and the number who abuse prescription medication such as painkillers is up sharply, a report released on Thursday found.
The study, issued by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University in New York, provides a detailed look at substance abuse among America's college students based on surveys, interviews and other research.
"I think we have, by almost any standard, a serious public health problem on the college campuses. And it's deteriorating," Joseph Califano, who heads the center and served as U.S. health secretary from 1977 to 1979, said in a telephone interview.
The report found that 49 percent of full-time college students ages 18 to 22 binge drink (consuming five or more drinks at a time), or abuse prescription drugs such as painkillers or illegal drugs like cocaine and marijuana. That translates to 3.8 million students.
In 2005, 23 percent of them met the medical criteria for substance abuse or dependence, it said.
From 1993 to 2005, the proportion of students who abuse prescription painkillers such as Percocet, Vicodin and OxyContin rose more than 300 percent to 3.1 percent (about 240,000 students), the report said.
Abuse of prescription stimulants like Ritalin and Adderall doubled to 2.9 percent (225,000 students), and abuse of tranquilizers also rose, the report said.
During the same period, daily marijuana use more than doubled to 4 percent (310,000 students). Overall use of other illegal drugs such as cocaine and heroin rose by half to 8.2 percent (636,000 students).
"Basically the proportion of college students who drink and binge drink has stayed constant. But what's troubling is the tremendous increase in the intensity of their drinking and drug use and the excessiveness of it," Califano said.
The percentage of students who drink remained about even with a similar 1993 report -- 70 percent then and 68 percent in 2005. Binge drinking stayed at 40 percent of students.
But the proportion who binge drink frequently, defined as three or more times over two weeks, rose by 16 percent from 1993 to 2005. Drinking 10 or more times per month rose 25 percent, and drinking three or more times per month rose 26 percent.
Daily smoking among college students fell from 15 percent in 1993 to 12 percent in 2005.
The substance abuse has contributed to alcohol-related deaths and injuries, and sexual assaults against female students, the report said.
Califano called the report the most exhaustive ever done on substance abuse on U.S. college campuses.
"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," the report said.
The report was based on results of a nationally representative telephone survey of 2,000 students, surveys of approximately 400 college and university administrators, interviews with researchers in the field and other data.