Collegians Lean More to Cocaine Use, Study Says

Nearly one-third of college students try cocaine by the time they graduate, but use of marijuana and other illicit drugs has dropped significantly over the last five years, according to a new, federally sponsored national survey released Monday.

“The overall move away from illicit drugs suggests that there is a decline in the drug epidemic of the 1960s and 1970s. But cocaine seems to have taken on a life of its own,” said University of Michigan researcher Lloyd Johnston, one of the directors of an annual drug survey of young Americans conducted for the government’s National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The survey is best known for documenting a decade of drug use among high school seniors. The new report is the first to release follow-up results on drug use trends after high school and is believed to be the “most extensive look at drug use on campuses,” Johnston said.

Since 1980, marijuana use has declined dramatically, but cocaine gained a “surprising and unsettling” foothold among college students and young adults in general, the Michigan authors said.

Annual Sample of Students

Their figures come from an annual sample of about 1,100 students, 19 to 22 years old, enrolled in two- to four-year colleges across the country.

They found that about one in six college students surveyed in 1985 said they had used cocaine in the previous year, while one in 14 said they had used it in the previous month. That percentage has remained steady for the last five years. Daily use of cocaine among college students, however, was reported at 0.1% in 1985.

By the time students finished their senior year of college, about 30% said they had tried cocaine at some time. Unlike other illicit drug use, cocaine experimentation continued to grow substantially each year after high school.

Nearly 40% of those age 27, the oldest group followed in the 1985 study, said they have tried it at some time, while only 10% of them said they had used cocaine when they were high school seniors in 1976.

Marijuana is still more widely used, but among college students, annual use dropped from 51% in the 1980 survey to 41% in 1985. Active daily marijuana use was cut in half, from 7.2% in 1980 to 3.1% in 1985.

“For many drugs, the fad has run its course among young people who grew up in a world filled with drugs,” Johnston said. “Cocaine is the latest fad. Hopefully there will be a natural correction about it as well.”