The course load is fairly different from that of a high-schoolers as students are expected to retain more information through application and critical thinking. Students who typically received straight A’s with minimal work invested arrive at the harsh realization that this habit is not successful in college. This transition can be difficult to manage, and students resort to Adderall for this increased focus. Desantis and Hane explore the prevalence of ADHD stimulants with a specific focus on how college students perceive and justify the use of these medications. Many students say, “I’m doing it for the right reasons,” especially in the case of Adderall (35). The “right reasons” stem from this desire to be academically successful, which is …show more content…
They are experiencing more personal autonomy, which is matched with the temptation and ultimately the consumption of these illicit drugs. It is inevitable for a college student to be presented with a situation where alcohol or non-prescription medication is involved. In fact, at least 50% of students were offered a drug by their sophomore year (Daniels-Witt et al.). While another study points out that 50% of students surveyed believed that stimulants were “easy to get on campus” (Weyandt et al). This poses the question as to why do students easily have access to these substances? One of the main contributors are students themselves who either purchase these drugs or are offered them by their peers (Weyandt et al 289). The above statistics simply mean that students face these external peer pressures regularly and the gateway into this abusive behavior is highly likely. As a result, policy makers in higher education need to develop ongoing analysis and reports on their own university’s scope of drugs. Through this process, there will be a better understanding of where the substances come from and then policy makers can discuss these situations in specific. In turn, if the temptation is less widely available, I believe that students should be less likely to succumb to the college party-like …show more content…
In specific, Werch, Meers, and Hallan investigated and reviewed the drug abuse prevention programs that were funded through the U.S. Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE). They specifically evaluated institutions that were currently receiving the FIPSE awarded grants. From this analysis, they learned that the main strategies incorporated were solely education based and 76% of [the] programs failed to reach their objectives. The strategies included were National Collegiate Drug Awareness Week activities (53%), educational presentations (52%), freshman orientations (49%), and curriculum development (49%)”. This fact illustrates that education alone does not prevent students from partaking in illicit behaviors, instead this shows more of a disregard that students have toward the information presented to them. I believe that these strategies may falter because students are not always inclined to participate in activities during a drug awareness week nor do they pay much attention to them during the freshman orientations. This inattention may be also attributed to the fact that students feel forced to engage in these activities. More so, during the orientation process, students are bombarded with various facts and rules, so something about drug education may simply be