What is lurking in students’ medicine cabinet could be more harmful than helpful, a recent study finds.
According to a study by Time magazine, college-age students are increasingly overdosing on drugs. However, drug and alcohol violations at Ohio University have decreased in the past few years.
From hospitalization data taken between 1999-2008 involving college-age students, Time magazine found that overdoses involving alcohol in combination with other drugs grew by 76 percent. The study also found that overdoses involving only alcohol went up 25 percent and overdoses by drugs other than alcohol rose by more than 55 percent. Overdoses on painkillers soared, increasing by 122 percent according to the study.
More students come to college with prescription medication, and mixing alcohol and prescription drugs can lead to negative consequences, said Terry Koons, associate director of the Campus Involvement Center.
“It’s a very challenging situation,” Koons said. “Many don’t see medicine as a drug.”
He said the increased overdoses are tied to three types of drugs: prescribed tranquilizers, prescribed stimulants and drugs students take that they have not been prescribed.
“How many students do you know using tranquilizers for anxiety?” he said.
When people with a high tolerance to tranquilizers take large doses, a blackout state can result.
Stimulants are medicines like those prescribed for ADHD.
When stimulants are mixed with alcohol, Koons said, alcohol acts like a stimulant rather than a depressant, increasing the heart rate and causing cardiovascular problems.
The final category is prescription medications taken by students who don’t have a prescription. OU conducted an Alcohol and Other Drug Survey and found that 28 percent of students use non-prescribed drugs, most for recreational purposes, while 10 percent of those admitted to using non-prescribed drugs while drinking, Koons said.
Ohio University’s Judiciaries cases have shown a drop in cases involving alcohol since 2009, when Ohio University applied the Alcohol and Drug sanctioning guidelines.
In 2006-07, there were 1,993 judiciary cases involving alcohol and drugs. During 2009-10, there were 1,272 cases.
During the same time period, violations of OU’s code of conduct involving mental or bodily harm to self dropped from 433 to 275.
“Mental or bodily harm to self-violations typically involve the abuse of alcohol,” said Christopher Harris, director of Judiciaries, in an email.
The university will host a program called Generation Rx each quarter that will focus on drug use, its effects and the harm it causes.
Students reacted with surprise to the decrease in drug and alcohol violations at OU, especially in light of OU’s recent Princeton Review designation as the nation’s No. 1 party school.
“I am surprised because last year we were the second party school,” said Leah Appleton, a sophomore whose major is undecided. “Now we are the No. 1 party school. That showed that people started drinking and possibly doing drugs more. Now something happened that reduced it.”
sf339111@ohiou.edu
