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News

Drug use not rampant at UH

Wellness Center: Most students not smoking pot, binge drinking

by ZACH HAVERKAMP
The Daily Cougar

UH on DRUGS: This is the fourth and final article in a series addressing drug and alcohol use on campus. 

Despite the perception that many UH students use marijuana, surveys conducted by the Wellness Center show that only about 10 percent of UH students engage in the activity, said Gail Hudson-Gillan, director of the center.

"We've done surveys in the past and we know that the perceptions are that there is a lot of use -- that everyone is using marijuana, that everyone is drinking to excess, that everyone is experimenting -- and the overwhelming number of students are not," Hudson-Gillan said. 

"That is pretty consistent with other campuses at other universities, where the majority of students are not using illicit substances, are not using marijuana and are not drinking to excess," she said.

Hudson-Gillan was unable to provide specific numbers, but students interviewed by The Daily Cougar said the perception of high marijuana use on campus reflects actual circumstances.

"(Marijuana use is) brazenly common," business freshman Dwayne Guffman, a former marijuana user, said. "Like on the way back from a test (someone will ask), ‘You want to share a blunt?'"

Marijuana is classified as a Schedule I drug -- the group of narcotics with the highest level of control, like heroin, cocaine, and ecstasy, among others -- by the Drug Enforcement Agency. 

Though students interviewed agree that chronic marijuana use can cause problems, most are hesitant to place it in the same field as other Schedule I drugs.

"There are 1000,000 instances within the last year that some crack head or dope fiend got upset and shot somebody or killed somebody … committed a violent act to get their drug. I cannot think of even one instance where some pothead raised a finger to hurt somebody to get his drug," said Tim, a marketing freshman who chose not to use his real name.

The role of the Wellnes Center is not to debate the legality of marijuana use, but to help students who legitimately feel like their use is detrimental to their lives, Hudson-Gillan said.

"In terms of (a drug user's life) spiraling out of control in the short run, things like methamphetamine, cocaine and crack are going to happen quickly. Things like marijuana are going to pick up at the same level; it just takes longer (before) this problem really starts to happen for a lot of people," Hudson-Gillan said.

Biology freshman Sean Camp said he supported the director's claim that marijuana has more potential to pose long-term rather than short-term problems.

"I do know somebody that does smoke weed and does everything that needs to be done, but he's in an early phrase where it hasn't really caught up to him yet," Camp said. 

Guffman said the affects of marijuana differ according to the individual.

"When I think of people that smoke pot, about half of them that I know go to class and make decent grades, and have goals to be teachers, businessmen, managers, things like that. Then the other half goes back to their apartments with blankets over the windows, and they get their sleep before they wait tables tomorrow," Guffman said. "That's their life's goal."

Though long-term marijuana use is not as mentally or physically destructive as long-term use of other Schedule I drugs, some marijuana-using students can get to a point where their habit becomes unmanageable, Hudson-Gillan said.

"I've had a lot of students who come in, and marijuana is a real problem for them. They're not motivated, they're not studying, they're not doing well in school, they really felt a craving for the drug, and they're really having a hard time getting it out of their lives," Hudson-Gillan said.
 

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