University of Virginia Library

Drug Use At University: Three Years Behind Nation

By Chuck Hite
Cavalier Daily Staff Writer

"Jack" and "Bill" are two university students
who smoke pot regularly. Jack has even
dropped acid a couple of times and says he was
thinking of trying mescaline, speed or maybe
even Heroin, just once. Both represent a small
but ever-increasing part of the student body.
Both are about three years behind the drug
scene at most American Universities.

Why three years? Take a look at an article in
the November, 1965 edition of the Atlantic
Monthly entitled "The College Drug Scene." It
begins: "While there are no significant statistics
- any more than there are on virginity, and for
the same reasons - drug-taking is becoming
increasingly popular on American Campuses. A
variety of drugs can now be easily obtained at
any college which draws its students from
metropolitan areas - which means that the
problem is most acute at the biggest and best
universities and at some of the most prestigious
small colleges. Marijuana is generally the drug
of choice : a young man from an Eastern
college claims, 'I have yet to see a college party
anywhere in the last two years where at least
one-third of the kids have been turned on.' "

So grass was the big thing for this "young
man from an Eastern College" in 1963, a year
when most University students were pondering
what brand of booze they should buy for the
next Big Weekend. By 1966 LSD was big on
many campuses with ever-increasing use through
1967. A big decline in dropping acid began
1968 and usage of LSD has all but died out in
most parts of the country. But pot was just
coming into its own in 1967 at Virginia as
witnessed by the Cavalier Daily's well known
interview with "Jim" last year. Perhaps Bill
sums up the situation best.

CD: You say there is an increased usage of
LSD at the University. Why is this, when there
is every indication that usage is down in most
colleges and universities?

Bill: Well, I think that's because we are
behind here at the University of Virginia. I
really do think we're behind in this sort of
thing, because it has been going on for a long
time up and down the east coast, - Columbia,
Princeton, Harvard, Berkeley in the west, -
places like Antioch. I really think we're behind.
I can go back to my high school. The year I
graduated, drinking was the big thing, The year
after I graduated, with me at the University of
Virginia worrying about where my next bottle
of bourbon was coming from, I found out from
a good friend back at my school that everybody
was smoking while as far as I knew, there was
hardly anybody smoking here. Then my brother,
who also goes to high school tells me
almost all of his friends are smoking, ten or
fifteen are dropping acid, some shooting speed
and here I am still wandering about Charlottesville
with not really much hard stuff being
used that I know of and my younger brother
knows people much harder than the ones I
know. So Charlottesville is behind, gaining I
suppose, while the rest of the country leaps
ahead, to what I don't know.

CD: But hasn't there been a tendency
around the country towards non-usage of LSD
and other hallucinogenics and turning on with
your mind only?

Bill: Yes, I think acid is declining elsewhere,
but I'm sure grass is leaping ahead. There are an
incredible amount of people smoking around
here. It's been called a social phenomenon. It's
just the thing to do, just like alcohol was the
thing to do.

Why "it's the thing to do" may vary from
person to person, but for most people, including
students, it boils down to a simple pleasure
seeking, escape from reality syndrome. Why are
students smoking pot, dropping acid, and
shooting speed? The reasons are probably similar
to those which caused millions of
just-one-after-supper suburbanites to turn alcoholic,
many of them now rotting away in
hospitals from cirrhosis, pancreaitis, and nervous
diseases. Why do physicians prescribe
unnecessary billions of dollars worth of tranquilizers
and mood elevators - amphetamines
and barbiturates? Why do hundreds of University
students wander up and down Rugby Road
more drunk than sober every party weekend?
People are looking for a way to escape from an
achievement oriented and increasingly secular
society.

The students' situation is, of course, somewhat
different from that of persons caught up
in the pressures of everyday living. College is a
four-year process of learning and self-realization.
Every decision made could have a lasting
effect on his adult life. Besides being pleasurable,
drugs seem to offer a chance for finding
one's self, to explore unknown areas of the
mind. Marijuana is the agent used most often
for this release-exploration need. Eventually the
pot smoker will run into pushers with other
drugs for sale and the attitude is "Why not try
it once?" Jack is the one who tried marijuana
and since then LSD for a new experience ("just
to see what it was like. I've been one to try
anything once.") It is doubtful whether he
discovered any profound new meaning in life
from his experiences and he doubts if he ever
will. Both he and Bill agree that smoking grass
has caused them to take a new look at life,
resulting in a much deeper appreciation of their
environment and things they had not "thought
about too much before." They admit that they
usually view smoking as a form of relaxation
and pleasure.

Both tend to rely on hearsay to obtain
information about the effects of different
drugs. Jack says he would be willing to try
speed once, and believes he could come
through the experience unscathed. They have
failed to find out that methamphetamine and
Dexedrine are central nervous system stimulants
which produce severe toxic effects from
over dosage, with the amount needed for
over dosage varying between individuals.

The following comments by Jack and Bill
present their thoughts on drug usage and
illustrate to what extent most students are
informed at the University.

CD: After smoking for the first time, how
did you feel about pot?

Jack: I thought it was far better than
alcohol as an escape mechanism. I liked it
because it felt good. It was a state of euphoria.

CD: Did you undergo any deep religious
experiences that time or later?

Jack: NO, I've never had any feelings about,
religion and drugs. I'm not a very religious
person anyway.

CD: What made you decide to take acid?
Were the reasons basically the same as those
which prompted you to try marihuana?

Jack: Well, it was another release
mechanism and, too, I was just curious. I
wanted to see what it would be like. The first
time I took it was this summer in California. It
isn't too hard to come by.

CD: How was your first experience with
acid? What were your feelings?

Jack: I enjoyed the sensations for a while
but after three or four hours I began to get the
feeling I couldn't come down. I thought I might