Need For ‘Students, Alcohol and Drugs’ survey

Need For ‘Students, Alcohol and Drugs’ survey

Mangalore Today News Network

By Dr. G. Shreekumar Menon

Mangaluru, April 14, 2025: Alarming reports are appearing every day in newspapers, magazines, news channels on TV, and in social media, about seizures of various kinds of drugs, from the possession of students. Reputation of many universities and colleges are under a cloud due to social gossip about chronic addiction among students studying in these institutions. A Narcotic drug or substance is any product other than food or water that affects the way people feel, think, see, and behave. It is a substance that due to its chemical nature affects physical, mental and emotional functioning. Situation is quite serious as people are even refusing matrimonial alliances, from students who have done their education from these institutions!

Most university students fall into the age bracket of 18 to 25 years. Vast majority of these students are transitioning into adulthood, living independently, and making decisions without direct parental or adult oversight. Students get lured into using drugs to relieve psychological stress, to celebrate special occasions, to reduce fatigue, and out of curiosity. Drugs enter the body through chewing, inhaling, smoking, drinking, rubbing on the skin or injection. Friends and peer pressure are the most common influencers of drugs and substance use. Many factors must be considered to understand the sudden surge in alcohol and drug abuse among students. Drug use is also positively associated with poor academic performance, high family income, being an only child, and having divorced parents.

Due to free availability of alcohol many students start experimenting with alcohol, and later switch to drugs at the start of adolescence, a habit they carry to the university where they get to meet and influence other people. Other risk factors are the inability to cope with stress at home and school, trauma, bereavement, student parties, the rising online gambling habit among the youth, and the freedom that comes with joining a university or college. Another disturbing trend is that female students are increasingly getting comfortable with what used to be a male vice. Students who are involved in drug and substance abuse often fail to sit for exams or complete continuous assessment, skip classes, and get involved in disciplinary issues. Social effects may be reflected in an individual’s enhanced tendency to engage in conflicts with friends, teachers, and school authorities. Cognitive effects relate to the individual’s lack of concentration on academic work and memory loss. Another lamentable fact is that the young generation no longer has role models since most of the young adults are unemployed and under the influence of drugs, or they look up to film and TV stars, who lead Bohemian lifestyles. Drug abuse is no longer not just a campus issue but a crisis of multiple dimensions, demanding urgent and collective action.

Under the above circumstances, there is an urgent need to conduct a comprehensive survey to ascertain the extant of drug abuse among students studying in universities both government and private, colleges, and institutions of higher learning. Despite the government’s concern and heightened campaigns against the vice among students, there exists a parallel accelerated rate of students who are illicit drug users. Although, students are expected to be aware of the effects of drug abuse and commit themselves to their studies, the habit still exist default of their prior expected awareness of its consequences. Although excessive use of illicit drugs is prevalent in all societies, students with no exception, no comprehensive survey has been conducted in universities, colleges and schools, to ascertain the gravity of the problem. A survey can also propose policy recommendations to mainstream drug related projects to secure students’ rights to education and the entire young generation.

A comprehensive drug survey would play an important role by giving recommendations that would be useful to administrators and local government in curbing drug abuse in schools, colleges and universities, through improving existing educational programmes, and striving to develop ones that are even more efficient. Apart from proposing more effective preventive measures in relation to drug abuse, the survey can also provide a background for other studies in drug abuse prevention. This would help in promoting a drug-free education environment and better academic performance, thus improving the standards of education in the county. In the absence of specific policies on substance abuse in educational institutions, this survey will make important recommendations on the way forward.

Another aspect that the survey can throw light on, is that, it is in the adolescence stage, that the ‘gateway’ drugs - alcohol and cigarettes, lure students. Alcohol and cigarettes are described as ‘gateway’ because they are usually, the first drugs that are used before other stronger drugs are tried out. Addiction leads to increased cravings for drugs with higher potency without which normal life processes is disturbed as also increased appetite and libido. Other vices such as stealing, fighting and gambling occur by drug abuse as a result of alteration in the brain chemistry of the abusers.

A survey in universities, colleges and schools can lead to a better understanding of the drug phenomenon and simplify the introduction of integrated projects to combat urban delinquency, especially among young people.

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Dr G Shreekumar Menon, IRS (Rtd) Ph. D (Narcotics)

Former Director General of National Academy of Customs Indirect Taxes and Narcotics & Multi-Disciplinary School Of Economic Intelligence India; Fellow, James Martin Centre For Non Proliferation Studies, USA; Fellow, Centre for International Trade & Security, University of Georgia, USA; Public Administration, Maxwell School of Public Administration, Syracuse University, U.S.A.; AOTS Scholar, Japan. He can be contacted at shreemenon48@gmail.com