Report On College Students Drug & Alcohol Use
14% of Bermuda College students who participated in a recent survey said they do not drink alcohol at all, while 46.1% admitted to using marijuana in their lifetime.
The Department for National Drug Control, in collaboration with the Bermuda College released the first ever Behavioural Study of Attitudes toward and Consumption of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Other Drugs amongst students at the Bermuda College.
The survey was conducted during the Spring 2013 semester. A convenience sample of 243 students completed the online survey equivalent to a response rate of 81.0% of those targeted; and represented over 20% of the semester’s student enrollment.
The results showed that alcohol was the drug of choice among survey participants at the Bermuda College, which is used by more students than tobacco or illicit drugs. The highest lifetime prevalence of alcohol stood at 81.1% while 14.0% of the survey participants reported that they do not drink alcohol at all.
When it came to marijuana, 49.0% of the survey respondents have never used marijuana, while 46.1% admitted to using marijuana in their lifetime, and 34.2% have used it in the past year.
The most frequently reported illegal drugs used in the past 30 days were: 24.7% marijuana, 7.0% designer drugs, and 5.8% other illegal drugs.
65.4% of students said that they first used alcohol before the legal drinking age of 18 years and 15.2% first used alcohol between 18 – 20 years. 35.7% first used marijuana before the age of 18 years and 44.9% before 21 years.
40.7% of the survey participants reported binge drinking [consuming five or more drinks in one sitting] in the previous two weeks of the survey, while one-third [33.3%] of the respondents reported consuming five or more drinks on their last social drinking occasion.
30.5% of the participants indicated that they would prefer not to have alcohol available at parties they attend and 72.4% said the same for drugs. 60.9% of the respondents admitted that alcohol use facilitates sexual opportunities.
Regarding perception of marijuana, 41.2% of the survey respondents indicated that smoking marijuana is never a good thing to do, but they believed that only 21.8% of students in general felt the same way.
Of those who indicated sexual activity in the last year [160], 26.3% reported using alcohol the last time they had sexual intercourse and 12.5% used other drugs.
Additionally, 6.2% of students reported having unwanted sexual intercourse in the past year due to their drinking or drug use, none of which was reported to the authorities.
Students also felt that drinking is a central part in the social life of both male and female students at 65.0% and 52.3%, respectively.
The full 88-page report is below [PDF here]
It’s scary to read that 7 percent in the past 30 days have used designer drugs but we hardly ever see reports of bps seizing these types of drugs. Seems that designer drugs go below the radar in Bermuda but these are the drugs that are the biggest threat to the young in north America. The popularity of using bath salts, molly & synthetic weed has spread like wildfire in America & has caused many deaths. Hopefully their are no students here dumb enough to try these killers just yeezy & weezy rap about them in a song.
Just to add, another thing that scary in this report is the amount of date rape. We need to educate our young about ALL drugs & not make the subject so taboo & propaganda spread. Young ladies & men need to know early in life that even taking the drugs that are not illegal could lead to doing something that will alter the rest of their lives.
this number is not reflecting closet smokers lol which is alot higher. Alot of people don’t answer surveys like that honestly because the believe it can come back to them.
I agree! These numbers are no where near the real truths! You want to see young teens engaging in drinking and drugs( designer drugs) , just go to the Beach and Docksiders on Front street any weekend night! Especially a Friday night!
the reason you dont hear much about them because there is no law on drugs like mushrooms,mdma aka mandy,speed and most of these new drugs that ha been comeing out over the past 10 years as more drugs have come out around the world bermuda police n government have no clue whats going on outside of bda and think these drugs will never touch the island,i was caught with mushrooms a few years back and the police swore down it was herion becaue it was grinded up and after the done what they had to do i was not charged because there was no law on mushrooms at the time..
Its Molly not Mandy just saying and also no one does mushrooms anymore the new thing is truffles
I know its way more students smoking weed then then what these retarded surveys say. I know of people who get high in between classes up there