<p>Here’s a link to a NYT’s article on drinking at Dartmouth:</p>
<p>[Sober</a> in the Animal House - NYTimes.com](<a href=“http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/sober-in-the-animal-house/]Sober”>Sober in the Animal House - The New York Times)</p>
<p>Mini–you wrote that not all schools are the same re: drinking. How can one tell what the drinking/drugging cultures are like at various colleges? Are there any reliable methods to check this out during one’s college search?</p>
<p>Most of the data are owned by the colleges themselves. However, their “college alcohol/drug coordinator” (usually a dean) is required to release them if asked. Many of them have published the data in the college’s newspaper (you just have to do a search.</p>
<p>However, generally speaking, you don’t need the actual data. Researchers have found nine characteristics of schools with higher binge drinking rates (the average being around 44%). They are: rural, mostly residential, coed, non-religious, higher than average income, mostly white (and, especially, few African-Americans), big on spectator sports, higher than average percentage in fraternities/sororities; few controls on drinking on campus/surrounding community.</p>
<p>From experience, I can tell you that a school with 7 or more of these characteristics will almost always have higher than average bingeing rates; and five or fewer will have lower. Very rare to find exceptions.</p>
<p>There is also a lot of evidence that density of alcohol-selling outlets in areas around schools have great impact.</p>
<p>Here’s the summary of a good recent article on the impact of college conditions on binge drinking rates:
[Binge</a> Drinking Tied To Conditions In The College Environment](<a href=“http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080711141755.htm]Binge”>Binge Drinking Tied To Conditions In The College Environment -- ScienceDaily)</p>
<p>Here’s an older article on individual correlates of college students who binge drink:
<a href=“http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1615519/pdf/amjph00445-0027.pdf[/url]”>http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1615519/pdf/amjph00445-0027.pdf</a></p>
<p>mini, thanks for the info in post 20. Could you share more about the growth in heroin use among young people - is it related to a scarcity of OxyContin? I ask because the 23 y/o son of an acquaintance was recently arrested for heroin possession and we were completely floored. It seems the least likely drug for a suburban, recent college grad to be involved with, though that is probably just my ignorance showing. This kid was arrested a few years ago for felony possession of a narcotic, which we speculated might have been OxyContin, went through rehab, and had charges dropped. Is heroin use in fact growing among young people? Apologies for the somewhat OT question, but heroin use seems so out of the norm for the college-aged population, whereas binge drinking is, despite its dangers, apparently quite common.</p>
<p>In my state, heroin use is growing massively among 18-24 year olds, and treatment admissions for heroin use among this age cohort are at an all-time high, as are treatment admissions for those under age 18. It is not common in the way alcohol is, and data on use (as opposed to those seeking treatment) have wide standard deviations (people don’t like to answer in the affirmative when asked about shooting up any drug.) Patterns of heroin use may differ in different parts of the country - black tar heroin on the west coast is very inexpensive (and mostly comes from Mexico); white China heroin available elsewhere is more expensive and comes from Afghanistan. However, white China heroin is also snorted, as well as injected, so the barrier to heroin use (injection) is not there.</p>
<p>As states such as ours clamp down heavily on prescription opiate supply, and as drugs such as OxyContin are reformulated to prevent time release properties from being defeated, heroin (which is very much cheaper) becomes much more popular.</p>
<p>Having said that, in aggregate alcohol remains a far more dangerous drug.</p>
<p>S2 had a drinking situation with his next door neighbor (they share a bathroom - yuck). It was encouraging to hear that the RA’s first did a breathalyzer to check for potential alcohol poisoning. They then sat with the kid for a couple hours making sure he was hydrated and done with his vomiting stint. </p>
<p>I agree that the flavored vodka and the vodka mixed with energy drinks is scary.</p>
<p>Heroin in small midwest towns now. Gangs have colonized much of the rural midwest.</p>
<p>[Alleged</a> heroin provider arrested climbing out motel window](<a href=“http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/crime_and_courts/alleged-heroin-provider-arrested-climbing-out-motel-window/article_f324af22-0aec-11e1-9065-001cc4c002e0.html]Alleged”>http://host.madison.com/ct/news/local/crime_and_courts/alleged-heroin-provider-arrested-climbing-out-motel-window/article_f324af22-0aec-11e1-9065-001cc4c002e0.html)</p>
<p>Yes, heroin is now on the menu of drug users in a demographic not previously linked to heroin use–affluent white suburbanites and residents of small towns.</p>
<p>My small town, 45 minutes south of Minneapolis experienced an outbreak of opiate/heroin use starting around 2007. IIRC, our local school system referred 13-15 high school students to treatment for opiate abuse during the 2006-2007 school year. This was a huge surprise when it came to light. Since 2007, nine locals have died. Most of them were in the 20-30 age range, with a couple of 40+s. From what I can tell, most came from stable, reasonably affluent homes. Most had two parents in the home and participated in school activities etc.</p>
<p>In our town, and from what I’ve read about other localities, use often starts with pilfering of prescription drugs from family members. Oxycontin is said to produce a heroin like high when it is crushed before taking. That busts up the “time release” properties of the drug–leading to a quicker, more intense high. </p>
<p>Oxycontin is very expensive and supplies are unreliable. Heroin supplies are reliable and it has become much cheaper and much more pure in recent years. A person can start supporting a habit for $10-40/daily. The habit grows from there. People from our small town took turns driving to Minneapolis to purchase heroin from gang sources. They’d share/resell the drug to others. We’ve had three people charged for murder (3rd degree, I think) when the people they brought the drugs to OD’ed and died. The parents of two of those charged are successful, prominent locals. (get my gist–it can happen to anyone, regardless of family background.)</p>
<p>A Twin Cities TV station just did a report on this problem–not focusing on my town, but the suburbs of the Twin Cities.</p>
<p>[Investigators:</a> Heroin Slips into Suburbs](<a href=“FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul”>FOX 9 Minneapolis-St. Paul)</p>
<p>Here are a couple of more links of interest regarding heroin use in the affluent suburbs around Chicago. The study is long, but really worth reading.</p>
<p>[Chicago’s</a> Heroin Problem Worst In The Nation, Says New Study](<a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>Chicago's Heroin Problem Worst In The Nation, Says New Study | HuffPost Chicago)</p>
<p>[Heroin</a> Prevention - Robert Crown Center](<a href=“http://www.robertcrown.org/heroinPreventionFacts.shtml]Heroin”>http://www.robertcrown.org/heroinPreventionFacts.shtml)</p>
<p>I think this topic deserves its own CC thread, and should be broken out from this thread. If I have time over the week end, maybe I’ll do that. (or if someone wants to do that for me, that’d be cool too.)</p>
<p>Oxycontin is my area is VERY abundant. It seems very easy to get and is one of the drugs of choice. I haven’t heard, yet, of heroin making a big comeback and hope it doesn’t but will keep my eyes and ears open. Pot is also very easy to come by it seems :(</p>
<p>For those that have children starting college, and I know they are all good children, but it is a wise decision to make sure your computer can handle and support a webcam and texting won’t cut it. Make sure you have actual phone conversations with your child and make sure you see them, perhaps, once a week or so on webcam. Do they look like they have showered, clean, calm, etc.</p>
<p>Anyway, not sure why the OP stared with Dartmouth but as we have all read, witnessed and observed the drinking and drugs are everywhere and unfortunately in every school but not with every child. Just keep doing what you are doing and hopefully they will listen.</p>
<p>Lovestotravel - what has happened is that last October (last year), OxyContin was reformulated, making it extremely difficult to tamper with its time release properties. Once the market in your area runs out of the old formulation, it is likely (unfortunately) that heroin will make its appearance.</p>
<p>Drinking and drugs may be everywhere, but they are NOT nearly the same everywhere, nor with every school. To me, the differences are in fact much greater than the similarities.</p>
<p>Mini, what’s your opinion on the effects of legalizing various drugs? Are you in favor of it or against it?</p>
<p>Just curious…</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>I thought mixed drinks were also fattening, maybe even worse than beer.</p>
<p>"Mini, what’s your opinion on the effects of legalizing various drugs? Are you in favor of it or against it?</p>
<p>Just curious… "</p>
<p>Professsionally, I think we’ve killed kids by lying to them about marijuana. When they’ve figured out that we’ve lied, they think we are lying to them about other drugs as well.</p>
<p>Personally, I’m not sure. If we legalize marijuana it will be a giant giveaway to major corporations, and since we are likely to restrict it to those over 21, we will create two markets - one for those over 21, and one for kids controlled by the drug cartels. I think that is the most likely effect.</p>
<p>Professionally, I’d much more heavily restrict prescription painkillers. Swedish Hospital operates an entire emergency room in Seattle without ANY Schedule 2 controlled substances, as do many hospitals in California. The new opiate/heroin epidemic is an iatrogenic disease - caused by ignorant doctors who are often uneducable (except by drug companies.) In treatment, I believe strongly in controlled heroin as superior to both methadone and buprenorphine.</p>
<p>And, both personally and professionally, I think alcohol is by far the most dangerous drug in our society.</p>
<p>I doubt any level 1 trauma centers don’t use opiates. Heroin addiction is iatrogenic? I don’t think so. Heroin is not in the same drug schedule as morphine and other opiates.</p>
<p>Who besides that physician in Vancouver is treating opiate addiction with heroin? It is illegal in the US.</p>
<p>Here’s one method to convince your child not to drink: let them see how stupid their friends are when they drink. It worked for me. It wasn’t even my parents who allowed me to see them, but that’s how I decided to rarely if ever drink, and it has made some friends of mine not drink, either. There’s a lot to be said for exposure.</p>
<p>Oh, and the 3 volume set of newspaper clippings given to each of us in Driver’s Ed aptly entitled “one-thousand-and-one dead teenagers” was DEFINITELY a deterrent.</p>
<p>DartmouthFather is proud – and relieved. I get that. But ease up, will you, please? There are still lots of miles to travel with Offspring and there are two miles of ditches for every mile of road. </p>
<p>Here’s where I come in: S1 is a recent Dartmouth grad. I am proud, proud, proud of that kid! But as smart and as wonderful as he is, he has made and will continue to make some choices that I just don’t get. Our risk levels are different, even if our value sets are mostly similar. </p>
<p>What other parents may find interesting is our S2 who is attending a much smaller, public college (nowhere on the Top 100 Colleges list). S2 has struggled with ADD and, after a disasterous freshmen year (we’re talking miserable grades) we finally had the Executive Functioning tests for him that showed how his brain works. It was startling and enormously helpful. Finally, after years of knowing how smart he is, we get to a point where structure and the right medication let him show the world his talents. </p>
<p>Eventually (I hope!) S2 will graduate with a degree from this small college with a GPA that will be, most likely, modest. </p>
<p>And I think S2 may be every bit as smart as the Ivy Leaguer. (Maybe smarter because his risk assessment is closer to my style). </p>
<p>We need to love each of these kids as Imperfect But Worthwhile. </p>
<p>And we need to be careful about crowing about their successes because those successes are partly luck or a roll of the dice (perhaps this year’s prettiest girls are hanging out in the Dartmouth Outing Club instead of the Fraternity basement).</p>
<p>Don’t get me wrong – parental teaching is hugely important. But those who make different choices or “wrong” choices are just as worthwhile — and not necessarily a reflection of poor parenting either.</p>
<p>“Heroin addiction is iatrogenic? I don’t think so. Heroin is not in the same drug schedule as morphine and other opiates.”</p>
<p>The heroin addiction we are currently seeing is iatrogenic. More than half the injection drug users we are now seeing at needle exchanges were utilizing prescription-type opiates prior to using heroin. Many of them became addicted by doctors who really didn’t know how to prescribe opiates for pain safely. Others became addicted because doctors (and dentists) were prescribing 5x-20x as many opiates as were needed, or prescribing when no opiate painkillers were needed at all, and the pills found their way to kids or directly into the market. </p>
<p>There are heroin maintenance programs in Switzerland and in England, diamorphine programs in the Netherlands, and controlled heroin programs in Vancouver and Montreal.</p>
<p>Here’s a good story about an OxFree ED system. They are becoming more common all the time:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.swedish.org/Media-Files/Documents/HealthProfessionals/PhysPractice-Magazine/PPJ-NOV10[/url]”>http://www.swedish.org/Media-Files/Documents/HealthProfessionals/PhysPractice-Magazine/PPJ-NOV10</a></p>
<p>“Don’t get me wrong – parental teaching is hugely important. But those who make different choices or “wrong” choices are just as worthwhile — and not necessarily a reflection of poor parenting either.”</p>
<p>OllyMom: I agree with what you say above 100%. Smart kids can make stupid choices. Just that simple. </p>
<p>“I thought mixed drinks were also fattening, maybe even worse than beer.”</p>
<p>CollegeAlum314-Mix vodka with sugar-free Red Bull and you have hardly any calories and perhaps no fat.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yes, so insidious.</p>
<p>When we spoke to an AMA group attempting to get them to understand, before the new time release controls were put in, that oxy should only be used in pain management for end of life care, many of them believed we had no idea what we were speaking of. Doctors, oddly, have a lack of understanding that having that many vicodin pills just siting around the medicine cabinet is dangerous.</p>
<p>There are pain relievers, similar to ibuprofin, but one molecule or two over, which are more effective for pain control, particularly in women, but are prescribed infrequently. The medicine cabinet is almost as dangerous as the liquor cabinet in most houses. As a parent, throw out all unused and unneeded pain medication asap.</p>