Research project:

Use of drug and alcohol related information in University students

David Clark

In order to facilitate the development of new prevention material on drug and alcohol misuse for young people, we conducted a survey of 1025 students from five campuses of the University of Wales in order to a) examine their use and trust of information on drugs, alcohol and solvents; b) determine the perceived importance of different types of information related to the use and misuse of drugs and alcohol; c) consider how likely certain factors are to encourage students to stop taking drugs?

55% of students had taken illicit (illegal) drugs at some time or other, although almost half of these had done so only 'once or twice'. One in seven students had taken drugs 'many times', whilst one in 14 had done so 'many times' in the past month. Our findings suggest that there is probably a minimum of 7% regular users of drugs on these campuses.

Cannabis was by far the most commonly used drug, with over half of the students having tried it. The next most commonly used drugs were amphetamine (17% tried), magic mushrooms (16%), amyl nitrites (16%), ecstasy (10%) and LSD (9%). Most people who had tried these drugs had only done so 'once or twice'.

The weekly alcohol consumption of over 50% of this student sample was higher than the Health Education Authority's old recommended levels for safe drinking (21 units for men and 14 units for women). There was a positive relationship between use of illicit drugs and amount of alcohol consumed weekly.

Drug and alcohol use was associated with negative effects on work and study, and positive effects on social life and friendships. Half of those subjects who had used drugs 'many times' in the past month reported a negative effect of drugs on their studying.

Two-thirds of the sample thought they knew enough about drugs, whilst half of the sample thought they knew enough to help a friend. One in two subjects stated that there is not enough publicity/advertising about drug-related issues in the media.

When subjects were asked what they thought was the best way of getting drug information across to people of their age, the most common response was TV (25% of responses), visits by ex-users (14%), magazines (10%) and leaflets (8%).

When the sample was considered in its entirety, the sources trusted to provide the most reliable information on drugs, alcohol and solvents were leaflets on drugs, doctors, national drug and alcohol helplines, and drug counsellors. Over 80% of subjects had either 'a lot of trust' or 'a fair amount of trust' for these sources. These sources, other than leaflets, were rarely used by subjects.

The most commonly used sources of information on drugs, alcohol and solvents were TV news programmes, magazines, friends, newspapers and TV programmes on drugs, being used 'sometimes' or 'often' by over 50% of students. TV programmes on drugs and TV news were the fifth and sixth most trusted source of information. The above five sources are those that are most readily at hand. It is not clear how often students make an active decision to obtain information about drugs and alcohol from the media, and how often they obtain information in passing (e.g. a news item on TV).

The least trusted sources, with over eight in ten subjects having no or little trust, were famous personalities and TV soaps. This finding has implications for suggestions that these source of information might be used to influence young people to stop or reduce drug taking.

There was an influence of prior drug taking on the trust and use of different information sources. For example, 'many times' users, unlike the other drug use groups, trusted information from drug users, ex-users and friends as much as, or more than information from leaflets, counsellors, doctors and helplines.

Experienced drug takers trusted and used information from the "drug experienced" (users and ex-users) significantly more than those who used drugs less or not at all. Experienced drug takers were less likely than others to trust "expert advice" and the "media", and use the "media" and "figure-heads" as an information source on drugs, alcohol and solvents.

There is clearly a shift in the trust and use of information with increased drug-taking, such that users associate more with other users and value the experience of their friends over what they might see as the media's anti-drug propaganda.

Students recognised the importance of various types of information on drugs and alcohol. The three most highly rated types, information on where to get help, positive and negative effects of drugs, and drug addiction, were considered 'important' or 'very important' by over 90% of subjects. Even the lowest rated type, information about street names, was considered important by 60% of subjects.

80% of those who had taken illicit drugs said they had made an active decision to stop taking certain drugs. The most common drugs were cannabis, amphetamine, ecstasy and poppers. The most commonly cited reasons for this decision for those who had taken only cannabis were "not needing the drug" (20% of subjects) and "not liking it" (18%), whilst for those who had also taken other drugs, the most common reasons were "bad experience or adverse mental effects" (28%) and health reasons (13%).

When subjects were asked how likely a series of factors were to stop them taking drugs, a "bad trip or other bad experience on drugs" was by far the most commonly cited reason. Over 80% of subjects said this would 'quite likely' or 'very likely' stop them taking drugs. The next most likely factors were "arrest or fear of legal action" (65% quite or very likely), advice from friends (58%) and doctor (56%). Only a third of subjects thought that advice from leaflets on drugs or a drugs helpline would likely stop them taking drugs, whilst this figure was lower for parents (31%), information from books / newspapers / magazines (27%), TV / radio (27%), independent source on internet (20%) and government (14%).

Over half of students had received five hours or less drug education at school, an amount which is too little. Less than one in ten students had received 20 hours or more. Although 80% of subjects had been talked to by a parent or another adult in the family about the dangers of drugs, this had happened only 'once or twice' in over half of these cases.

There was no relationship between the amount of drug education received at school (and the amount the subject had been talked to about drugs be an adult in the family) with either drug use or alcohol consumption.

Over half of the students stated that they would use the internet to access information if they knew there was a high quality, independent web-site providing information on drugs, alcohol and solvents. However, the internet was rarely used by the students as such a source at present, and there was low trust of the reliability of information from internet sources. This latter finding was somewhat anomalous, since content providers of such web-sites could be practitioners who are highly trusted by the students, and the content could be identical to what appears in a newspaper, which was more trusted than the internet.

We emphasised the necessity to ensure that young people are made well aware that web-sites on drugs, alcohol and solvents can be readily accessed, be of high quality, trustworthy and independent. If a web-site is to be a successful resource, it will need to possess these characteristics.

When developing prevention material on a web-site or elsewhere, one must cater for
differences in trust that users and non-users have for information from different sources. There is an important role for both practitioners and ex-users (and users) in providing information.

Detailed report available in pdf format