Survey says NCC students less likely to drink, smoke, toke

By Cory Salveson

The Core Drug and Alcohol Survey counted up NCC’s butts, bottles and bowls last spring. In rough numbers, one-third of the student body was found smoking cigarettes daily, one-fifth drinking alcohol weekly and one-seventh toking
up monthly.

Even so, NCC students actually smoke, drink and smoke pot less than they did a year ago. And even though the decrease is small, it’s substantial enough to put NCC below the state averages.
   
The survey, conducted last spring by Boynton Health Services at the University of Minnesota, studied the drug habits of 12 colleges across the state. The results are intended to help schools help their students. The hope, in other words, is that better data makes for better decisions about allocating funds, updating policies and improving programs.
    
So, what does the data say students are like? Across the state, cigarette smokers
tended to smoke an average of about a half a pack a day, although many smoke more on weekends.

Smokers tried quitting an average of about four times last year and some tried as many as 30. The survey also found men smoked more than women. That gender gap was mirrored in alcohol consumption. Men and women drank with the same frequency (for most students, at least once last year), but when they did drink, men tended to drink twice as many drinks as women.

And NCC? Though many students still remain above the legal limit, as it were, students actually consumed on average between 3% and 5% less in 2006 than they did in 2005--and that’s across the drug spectrum. In perspective, this means that in an average class size of about 30 people, one person quit who previously smoked, one person is sober who previously drank and one person has clear eyes who previously had to wear sunglasses to cover their drug abuse.

As it turns out, that decrease helps put NCC below state levels for drug use. The decrease points to successful strategies at NCC and abroad. A presentation by Boynton Health Services suggested links between county smoking bans and student
smoking decreases, for example, but also congratulated schools on their own positive impacts.

NCC students who would like to know more about campus drug policies, or who would like help managing drug problems, are encouraged to contact the Health or Counseling departments.