Drug Culture Within UCD — Survey Results

Credit: Mani Beygi & UCD Students For Sensible Drug Policy

Within The First Semester Of The 2022/23 Academic Year, My Team And I At UCD Students For Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) Conducted A Survey To Learn More About The Drug Use & Culture Of Students Studying At University College Dublin (UCD).

The Goal Of This Anonymous Survey Was To See The Most Popular Drugs Used By UCD Students, The Method Of Usage And The Environment Of Usage. We Wanted To Use This Data To Help Us Guide Our Future Campaigns For Policy Change & Harm Reduction Education.

It Is Unfortunate That Universities Don’t Continuously Monitor Drug Use And Drug Habits For Their Students, And Even Though Some Good Data Has Been Produced By Researches Like “The Drug Use In Higher Education In Ireland (DUHEI) 2021”, Having University-Specific & Continuously Monitored Data Will Help Organisations Like Us Cater Better Information & Advocacy Campaigns.

After Getting A Response From 172 Students, These Are The Results:

Top 5 Drugs Used:

1. Alcohol — 22.7%
2. Cannabis — 17.3%
3. Tobacco/Nicotine — 15.9%
4. Cocaine — 8.6%
5. MDMA (Ecstasy) — 7.1%

Location Of Drug Use:

1. Club — 41.1%
2. At Home — 28.6%
3. Other Social Situations — 28.4%
4. Performance Enhancement — 1.6%

Method Of Drug Use:

1. Smoking (Joint/Blunt) — 29.7%
2. Oral (Pills/Strips/Drops) — 23.0%
3. Edibles — 17.9%
4. Snorting — 16.7%
5. Smoking (Bongs) — 12.7%

We Recognise The Weaknesses Of Our Survey Such As It Being Self-Reported, Or Respondents Not Being Able To Ask Specific Questions Or Clarifications About Our Questions, Yet This Is A Very Crucial First Step Towards Creating An Effective And Targeted Harm Reduction Campaign For UCD Students. Hopefully More Universities Will Do Such Surveys To Understand The Drug Culture Within Their Campuses, In Order To Provide Life-Saving Information, Education & Services.

Big Thanks To UCD SSDP Committee Members, Our Regular Members, And The UCD Students’ Union For Helping Out With This Survey.

‘UCD SSDP’ Is Not Affiliated With University College Dublin, We Are An Independent Collective Of Students With The Shared Goal Of Creating A More Educated And Safer Environment On Campus For People Who Use Drugs. Students For Sensible Drug Policy Does Not Condone Or Condemn Drug Use.

This article was originally published on my LinkedIn profile:

Mani Beygi on LinkedIn: Drug Culture within UCD - Survey Results