College Drug Use

By Kai and Cindy

Is Drug Use at Universities

A serious Problem?

Do college campuses create an enviroment that leads to excessive drug and alcohol consumption

These are the drugs typically consumed by college students,

seems like a lot right?

When we examine others in the same age group...

We see people are generally doing the same thing...

Prevelence of drug use, College vs Non-College

But surely some schools must promote excessive drug and alcohol use, right?

To gauge how big an issue excessive drug and alcohol use might be,

lets examine Universities across the US with the most drug/alcohol related arrests

On Campus Drug Arrests

This map appears to show random colleges that are hotspots for drug use but...

Upon comparing these hotspots with regional patterns, it becomes apparent that drug usage at

a particular university is often strongly correlated with the norms of the surrounding region.

Based on this observation, we might conclude that region is a better predictor of

drug and alcohol abuse than the university.

Finally, lets examine deaths from college realted drinking incidents

These numbers may seem high, but in the most deadly year we see a death rate of only 0.003%

This compared to the general population, which has an anual alcohol related death rate of 0.05%

Findings:

Age and Region may be stronger predictors of

an individual's drug and alcohol habits than their enrollment status in college.