<p>Lehigh has a reputation as a frat heavy party school where there is alot of drinking. That reputation is well known and well deserved. What is not well known however is how startingly severe the drug problem has become and how it has infiltrated its D1 athletics programs and Greek system. Oxycontin (referred to on campus as Blues or Guys) is a synthetic opioid equivalent to heroin in terms of its addictive and damaging effects. The use of this drug and addiction to it has become epidemic at Lehigh. Other drugs such as cocaine, diverted ADD meds used as study drugs, club drugs such as "Molly" and cocaine and weed are also rampant, as in other schools, however the Oxycontin situation is destroying young peoples lives in large numbers here. Take a long, hard look at yourselves and your children before considering this place.</p>
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<p>Any evidence? Or is this an expression of frustration being directed towards an outstanding university?</p>
<p>The drug scene exists at any college or university. But if you ask the vast majority of students, they’ll tell you that the drug scene at Lehigh is virtually non-existent. I personally have not heard of frequent drug use on campus. I’m sure it does exist - but in a small number of individuals.</p>
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<p>I would hope that the parents on these forums have already had the “drug/alcohol” talk with their college-bound or college-attending children. You could never hope to send your kids to a school completely devoid of drugs or alcohol. However, you can teach your kids how to avoid them and how to carve out their own substance-free niche at a university.</p>
<p>Completely disagree with you, LEPops. What in the world are you basing such a sweeping and defamatory comment upon? Lehigh is filled with some of the brightest and greatest kids that are working incredibly hard towards a bright future. </p>
<p>Your cautionary tale is as valid at any university, college, or community college as it is at Lehigh. If you have proof of someone at this wonderful university doing something like that, pursue it with authorities not on College Confidential like it’s some generalized fact about students at Lehigh. It’s not true of my child there or anyone that he knows there, not one single fellow student.</p>
<p>LEpops, You sound like you may be speaking from personal knowledge and if so, I sincerely hope that the situation has a positive outcome. Unfortunately, our hometown has been dealing with the Oxy problem for many years. In fact, our entire varsity baseball team was addicted several years ago. A few did not survive and the rest struggle each and every day to stay clean. It is the most horrible of addictions.</p>
<p>I would caution against painting Lehigh with a broad brush however as my son confirms what others here have stated. There are a small number of students who use “hard” drugs and he has never encountered the situation you describe. He is friendly with many who are on atheletic teams and in the Greek system and has not heard from them of this “epidemic”.</p>
<p>The world our children live in has many challenges and addiction is primary among them. Every young person heading out into the world must have the foundation and self respect to resist drugs and make good judgements about what they put in their bodies. Does it always happen that way, unfortunately no…</p>
<p>If your child has not reported it that could mean he has not been exposed to it. Drug addicted young people generally do not report these things to their parents. The truth is revealed but often way too late. I am basing my statement from our own experience which revolves around the “top tier” frat and Athletic scene at Lehigh. I stand by every word of it.</p>
<p>@mumof2boyz
The exact sort of situation you describe in your hometown now exists at Lehigh.</p>
<p>“What is not well known however is how startingly severe the drug problem has become and how it has infiltrated its D1 athletics programs and Greek system.”
“The use of this drug and addiction to it has become epidemic at Lehigh.”
“…however the Oxycontin situation is destroying young peoples lives in large numbers here.”</p>
<p>You stand by stating that the drug problem is “startling severe” and “infiltrated” athletics programs and Greek system? That’s a very serious accusation to level against a lot of students. My son is part of that population and your generalization about him and his friends is offensive and 100 percent wrong.</p>
<p>You stand by stating that Oxycontin is an “epidemic” at Lehigh? You stand by stating that Oxycontin is destroying a “large” number of lives at Lehigh? </p>
<p>I am saddened that your statement is based upon your own personal experience and/or your child’s experience, but there are many, many, many students that you do not know. Your choice of the words “epidemic” “large number of lives” “startling severe” and “infiltrated” casts an awfully wide net that I think is outright wrong, inflammatory, and insulting to many good kids and their families that you have never met.</p>
<p>LEPops, I certainly appreciate the warning, but it should not be taken out of context. To imply to anyone considering attending Lehigh that they are any more at risk of becoming addicted, or even exposed to Oxy than they would at any other school is ridiculous. Since you are apparently privy to information that we are not, it has obviously touched you personally in some way, and for that I am sorry and hope that whatever exposure your child has had has not done irreparable harm. However, I can attest, along with the other posters here, that based on my own experience as an alumni board member of a fraternity at Lehigh, and with a son who is currently a freshman, that I have not seen any evidence of this “epidemic,” as you call it. The unfortunate reality of the world we live in is that these temptations exist at EVERY academic institution, including high school, and young adults and their parents need to be aware that they exist, and hope that the students make smart, responsible choices, no matter what school they choose to attend. You cannot single out Lehigh as if it is the only school with this alleged problem (you are the only one so far who has experienced it) without comparing facts and statistics to those of other schools.</p>
<p>Everything is relative. When I attended Lehigh some thirty years ago, there were some fraternities that had a reputation as “drug houses.” there were only a few of them (and back then there were many more fraternities than we have now). I’m sure to a member of one of those houses drug use could have appeared “epidemic”, but to the school as a whole, it was not. Beer was the “drug” of choice back then, some weed, but very little chemical drug use. I would imagine that to a member of an athletic team or fraternity where abuse of Oxy has become popular, the use of the drug may seem to be epidemic, even though compared to the Lehigh student population as a whole it is a relatively small problem.</p>
<p>That said, I do thank you for bringing your experience to light. It should serve as a warning to any student attending any college. I personally will become more vigilant with my own son and will closely monitor the situation at my fraternity at Lehigh.</p>
<p>Having sent my older son who is a devout non-drinker to a top twenty ranked school known for its intellectual pursuits and quiet wholesome community, he is back home after being surrounded of uncontrolled drugs and binge drinking. We specifically targeted this school because of its reputation for no drugs and alcohol. He completed his year and transferred to a local college back home.</p>
<p>It would be unwise to think this behavior is not rampant on all our college campuses. We met with a wonderful college professor who had experience with both Lehigh and an ivy league that I will not mention. The drinking was far worse at the Ivy League than at Lehigh. Be careful not to confuse “good PR” and lack of publicity with the absence of drinking and drugs.
This behavior is far worse at many of the top tier schools than at Lehigh.</p>
<p>Agree that this problem is sadly EVERYWHERE, I came upon this looking for general info. Also agree with posters questioning the thread starter. If this cautionary tale is true, consider the poster’s previous questions were all about their child being a January waitlist late admit very concerned with fitting in, social life, and Greek rush. That is what all previous questions revolved around, not academics. Thus it’s possible that in the student’s pursuit of fitting in and partying, negative people and negative experiences were encountered. Quality people are everywhere if one looks. Drugs are everywhere if one looks.</p>
<p>I am currently Lehigh freshman and i applied early decision last year, So when I started digging deeper (after already being legally committed to attending) i started to freak out reading all the forums thinking that I was going to be stuck around a bunch of drunks and be kind of a loner, because I generally don’t like to drink. Since I was committed I had to come anyways and I’m VERY happy with my decision. I am part of “CHOICE” housing which is open to everyone and has nearly 200 students this year. We are a group of kids that basically pledge not to drink in our dorms or come back drunk. As a result the living environment is not as bad as a normal dorm. Some do still go out and party, but they do not make anyone feel guilty for not going and they do not disrupt the halls when they return. I have a lot of really close friends from CHOICE housing and plan to continue living there next year. and no we aren’t all nerds. It is actually impressive how many completely normal people make the same decisions not to party away their college years.
I blog for my work study at Lehigh. We talk about all kinds of things from clubs to classes, to dorm life. I suggest checking it out ( especially the early in the year posts when we were all just starting living here)
this is one I wrote about my dorm: <a href=“6 o’clock dinner | First-Year Lehigh Engineers”>http://luengineer.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/2013/11/06/6-oclock-dinner/</a>
and this is the blog in general: <a href=“http://luengineer.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/”>http://luengineer.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/</a></p>
<p>Your maturity and post are both appreciated lujoe. It is good to hear that for some the CHOICE housing is a viable alternative. Are there any addicts in recovery living in CHOICE? As a serious student who shuns alcohol and substances how do you view the Greek system? What are your thoughts on the social tiers? How do you plan to navigate that at Lehigh?</p>
<p>Your blog posts are well written, entertaining and informative, lujoe. Please allow me to reiterate that this post was put up as a cautionary tale for the benefit of students and their families. I did not intend for these concerns to extend to the College of Engineering. </p>
<p>I am a second year Lehigh student, and I have never been around drugs, pressured to use drugs (or drink alcohol), and in no way see drugs as a problem on this campus. I know that some people choose to do them, whether they are involved in Greek life or not, engineers, business, and arts kids alike. I know many engineers who do drugs. But, I have never felt pressured or uncomfortable around them. Never in my life have I done any sort of drug and I don’t plan on doing it ever. It is not a problem here.</p>
<p>APoverload, my son’s experience, and apparently the experience of everyone I’ve encountered with children at Lehigh, is one like you described–NO pressure to use drugs and NO rampant drug use or abuse. My son says his friends are a mix of Greek and non-Greek, great kids that are extremely intelligent and fun, well-rounded, and sociable. They’re all great kids and have amazing futures ahead of them with the education and experiences that Lehigh is providing to them. He’s an engineering student that works hard and plays hard. He’s also never seen anything that LEPops describes. </p>
<p>If LEPops wants to make such inflammatory, nasty statements, those should be ignored unless he has proof of the horrible attacks he makes against innocent students. If he had real evidence of the claims he makes, he should be reporting it to authorities. There is a very small segment in society that are anti-social and try to blame others for their anti-social behavior and attitude. Anonymously sitting behind a computer screen and making up stuff is how some people get their jollies. His asking a student if there are addicts in recovery that are living in Choice housing is…priceless.</p>
<p>Thanks for confirming that Lehigh is an awesome university where intelligent, sociable kids can have fun WITHOUT drug use or dangerous behavior, while also get a world-class education.</p>
<p>My take is LEPops has a son who has a drug problem. The son, as kids do, says “But, everyone was doing it, Dad.” And LEPops believed him. I learned not to believe that excuse when my son was 3. Everyone is responsible for their own choices.</p>
<p>There are also those parents who blame everyone else - teachers, coaches, other parents, other kids for anything that their kid does wrong. You spot those parents pretty quickly, sounds like LEPops is one of those parents too.</p>
<p>LEPops just likes to cause issues. His son probably isn’t doing well here or something, but I have been here for 8 months and haven’t even seen a drop of alcohol… forget about drugs. Its all about who you choose to hang out with. Its the same as any school. If I wanted to I could go get drunk tonight… but I wont because I like to hang out with people who don’t. It is as simple as that. If you are worried about your son or daughter coming here because of this guy, don’t. Read some of our blogs, there are lots of things we do besides party. <a href=“http://luengineer.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/”>http://luengineer.■■■■■■■■■■■■■/</a></p>
<p>All my kids went to Lehigh and had fantastic times. Alcohol and drugs are available just as they are in any city in this country…nobody ever attempted to force them to try either. Don’t believe the crap you read.</p>
<p>My son is at lehigh and in a frat. He said he had never seen heroin, people do smoke pot and he has heard of some pills but not anyone he has seen personally. He is An EMT, a leader in many campus groups and has never gotten in trouble or caused me problems. But still I speak to him about the oxy and heroin epidemic in the world today. It is important to speak and educate our kids about drugs. I send him articles and cut them out for my 16 year old to read and then I ask her how she feels about it? Has she seen these drugs? It is amazing what they will tell you if they feel safe. So far so good with my two but based on everything I read about these epidemics, you never know! It sounds like the father that was stating drugs everywhere at lehigh may have a son that made poor choices. It honestly could be any of our children and I feel for him but he really used the wrong words in his statement:) lehigh is one of the best decisions we ever made!</p>
<p>LEPops, really? Stop with your fantasy nonsense. Now, someone has just joined CC and makes two comments. And what are the comments? The same weirdo musings of LEPops and his dear daughter. I glean from your comments as LEPops that your daughter was offered a spot on the TRANSFER waitlist. He was all concerned about how she’d fit in, if she’d feel isolated, ever be able to make friends, be forced to do all sorts of stuff. Hmmm. My kid can fit in anywhere and can fit in with anyone except for liars and people that are so bitter that they make up lies and/or attack strangers instead of looking in the mirror. Lehigh has been wonderful for my son. He has never felt pressured to do any drinking or drugs. He has great grades and a great rapport with professors and fellow students. He has a broad range of friends and is active in the Bethlehem community and his college community. Lehigh is amazing.</p>
<p>Makes me think he knew she wouldn’t fit in anywhere, and didn’t fit in at her original campus, either. Was she imagining all of the same stuff there or was it different imaginary things? In another thread, he is all about the haves and the havenots at some sort of camp, reading camp?? No, no one that I’ve ever met says anything even slightly related to your insane rantings. Maybe your dear daughter told you that stuff as to why she doesn’t have a social life? Maybe? Maybe it’s not everyone else’s fault that your daughter that can’t fit anywhere with over 4K students. </p>
<p>I know you want to keep this thread alive to harm Lehigh’s reputation and get retribution for some fantasy slight that your dear daughter conjured up, but this is all nonsense and not true from everything I’ve seen and heard from people that have been there for years. </p>
<p>With your new screen name, I see you’ve commented on another one that you try to harm Lehigh’s excellent reputation. The fact is, Lehigh is AWESOME! For anyone that can function in a high performance, academic environment, Lehigh is AWESOME! For anyone that wants to have friends and fun with their peers in a safe environment, Lehigh is AWESOME!</p>