Little green fairies. That's what my American friends told me I'd see when I drank absinthe. They said I'd hallucinate "like whoa," and that that's why it's illegal in America. Something to do with a chemical called Thujone, which comes from the herb wormwood. "It's really strong," they said, all smiles.
I considered this as the London bartender poured the translucent green liquid into a shot glass, put one drop of another clear liquid onto a sugar cube, ignited the green liquid and told me to "plop" the sugar into the fire.
"How strong is it? Will I see green fairies," I asked him half jokingly, half not.
"You tell me," he said with a smirk, "Swallow."
Yeah, it was strong. But the effects of the fiery liquid that numbed my throat and warmed my stomach was nothing that different from (legal in America) alcohols like Bacardi 151 and Devil Springs 160 proof vodka.
And I didn't see any fairies. My world did not turn green. I told the bartender I was disappointed; that I thought there was some sort of chemical in the drink that made it illegal in the States.
"Only in high dosages will you hallucinate," he replied. His tone connoted that the British knew not to abuse the drug; and that I sounded very American (not in a good way). "If you see green fairies, then I'd say you had too much."
Now that I'm back, I cannot help but consider my six years of college - having "too much" alcohol was the norm for many of my peers. I don't know if I was sheltered during that time or if I'm just getting old, but in recent years it appears that younger generations are doing "too much" of other sorts of (illicit) drugs.
Maybe unsurprisingly, marijuana is the number one illegal drug used by college students. According to the 2008 Monitoring the Future (MTF) annual survey, which is conducted under a contract issued by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 17 percent reported use in 2006.
The second most frequent is prescription pain medications (used by 3.1 percent), followed by amphetamines and tranquilizers (about 2.5 percent), cocaine (1.8) percent, barbiturates (1.3), and hallucinogens (0.9).
(Although this survey focuses on secondary level students (eighth-, 10th- and 12th-graders), a follow-up survey is conducted each year with a selected sample of college students and other young adults).
I was surprised to learn that in the past 11 years, while the use of any illicit drugs other than marijuana by secondary level students has decreased by nearly 22 percent, those same drugs - mostly prescription drugs and cocaine - have increased by over 82 percent for college students.
The 2007 report written by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University titled, "Wasting the Best and the Brightest: Substance Abuse at America's Colleges" implied that many college campuses have created a culture where abusive behavior of legal and illegal drugs is acceptable.
The 231-page report analyzes six national studies and found that nearly 23 percent of college students fit the medical description for substance abuse or dependence (triple the amount of the "normal population").
The findings by the latest roadside survey by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration suggest that illegal drug use has increased amongst the "normal population" as well. The survey took breath, saliva, blood samples and questionnaires from randomly selected drivers in 300 locations around the U.S.
(For the first time, this survey used screening methods to detect marijuana, cocaine and prescription drugs).
The report shows that since 1973, the percentage of people driving above the legal alcohol limit (.08 or higher) dropped 2.2 percent from 7.5 percent to 5.3 percent. The survey also found that 16.3 percent of nighttime weekend drivers tested positive for drugs - nearly 9 percent had used marijuana and almost 4 percent tested positive for cocaine and prescription drugs.
When considering such statistics for the "normal population," triple those figures is quite disturbing.
The CASA study found that the number of students who binge drink frequently (having five or more drinks on any one drinking occasion) increased by 16 percent between 1993 and 2001, students who use marijuana daily has more than doubled since 1993, and hundreds of thousands more have begun to abuse prescription drugs like Ritalin, Adderall and OxyCotin.
The 2005 article "Nonmedical Use of Prescription Stimulants among U.S. College Students: Prevalence and Correlates from a National Survey" found in the journal Addiction, even suggests that the use of prescription stimulants can be as high as 25 percent on some campuses.
Researchers like Nancy A. Roget and Gary L. Fisher, editors of the 2008 "Encyclopedia of Substance Abuse Prevention, Treatment, and Recovery," agree that the collegiate culture is to blame for such substance abuse patterns. In the book, they suggest that it provides students with their first opportunity to be exposed to diverse people with minimal supervision and few adult responsibilities; that administration needs to step in if the problem is to be solved.
After being overseas, it appears that trying to help people with substance abuse issues in college is much too late. America is known worldwide for being stringent when it comes to educating people about drugs (and sex, but that's another argument). Bluntly, it is typical for such major issues to be veiled in the hopes of sheltering people from harm.
But like studies show, when something is made unobtainable people overdo it the first chance they get. For many, that chance is college. Maybe, if people were taught about drugs from a young age (more than the abstinence-only approach) there wouldn't be half the abuse issues we have today.
Simply put: until education expands in America, college students (and the rest of the "normal population") are going to think they're supposed to see little green fairies. And they aren't going to stop until they do.
Sarah Schwab is a Dunkirk resident. Visit her Web site at www.sarahtschwab.com and send comments to editorial@observertoday.com