Nebraska Academy of Sciences
Drug Use and Life Style Among College Students at a Two-year College: A 10-year Longitudinal Study
Abstract
We report the results of a questionnaire on drug use and lifestyle among college students at a 2-year college. We compare this to our study done 10 years previously at the same college. The reported use of drugs other than alcohol and marijuana is very low in both surveys and we observed a change in the level of use of marijuana and alcohol. Reported marijuana use rose from 49% to 53% while alcohol use dropped from 84% to 78%. Heavy use (at least weekly) dropped for each of these drugs: 21% to 8% for marijuana and 67% to 38% for alcohol. Though apparent changes in use levels are seen the overall use of alcohol and marijuana were not significantly different between years via non-parametric tests. Aspects of lifestyle associated with marijuana or alcohol use include level of sexual activity, years in college, and friends who use. The strongest correlate to use of these two drugs is the level of sexual activity; we found this same relationship in our earlier study.