Wesleyan is a good school academically. There are great opportunities, and I am guessing most people who go there turn out fine.
That said, I have to agree with your parents. Hopefully I don’t offend anyone here, but I am a former drug addict. Abstaining from drugs is not as easy as simply not being a drug-user. Weed, alcohol, cocaine, LSD, uppers, downers, and finally, my descent into heroin – I’ve done them all. I am from New England and actually used to drive down to Wesleyan as well as another college in CT with my junkie friends to get the good stuff. This was nearly a decade ago, so things may have changed.
The problem with any school, town, or area with a large drug scene is that it becomes normalized. Don’t get me wrong – nearly every school has a drug scene. However, if very few people do drugs/users are in the clear minority, then it’s easy to avoid. When many people around you do drugs – you may have the best of intentions to abstain, but the normalization of any drug is a dangerous thing. When the attitude is “it’s not big deal” or “everyone does it” – it’s fine if you’re a really strong person, but many of us are not. You have to figure out whether you’re the kind of person who needs to fit in or who, in a weak moment, would do something regrettable in order to be liked by your peers.
For me – a teenager who was very susceptible to peer pressure and needed to fit in, it took literally moving across the country, cutting off all my former friends, changing my name, and moving into the boring suburbs (where ANY sort of drugs are frowned upon) that got me sober (and helped me stay sober). I work a bland suburban job these days; most of my new friends and fiance don’t even drink alcohol. I needed the norm of “DRUGS ARE BAD.” Some (strong) people don’t; I did and a lot of people do. I would do some soul-searching and figure out where you fall on that spectrum.