The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3 - 98

Austin Lyke

materializes in the form of required health education for incoming students, sober residence
halls, and campus liquor bans. it follows that
much of the research and program evaluation
on campus drug and alcohol abuse prevention efforts focuses on institution-specific settings and policies. But what of more punitive
forces? recent sweeping changes in state laws
governing personal use and sale of marijuana
and other cannabis-derived products puts into
consideration the question of how regulations
outside the ivory tower impact college students
living in campus housing. Drawing on related
research and theory, this study primarily investigates: 1) the relationship between state-level
marijuana policy and student drug and alcohol
arrests and disciplinary actions in college and
university housing at public and private fouryear institutions. in doing so, the hope is that
housing administrators and others tasked with
drug and alcohol prevention will appropriately
consider effects of state laws when crafting and
carrying out campus-specific policies.

Drug and Alcohol Trends on Campus
the annual National Survey Results on Drug
Use offers descriptive statistics that provide a
general sense of the epidemiology of college
student drug and alcohol use. for 2014, 39%
of college students reported at least one instance of illicit drug use, with 34% reporting
using marijuana (Johnston et al., 2016), the
highest of any non-alcohol drug. more than
double that amount at 79.4% reported drinking and 68.8% of full-time college student respondents had been drunk in the survey year
(Johnston et al., 2016). perhaps most relevant
to this study, marijuana use (daily and overall)
increased among young adults, high school

98

Recent sweeping changes in state
laws governing personal use
and sale of marijuana and other
cannabis-derived products puts into
consideration the question of how
regulations outside the ivory tower
impact college students living in
campus housing .

seniors, and college students between 2007
and 2015 (Johnston et al., 2016), a finding
researchers suggest could be related to shifts
toward more tolerant state-level laws. furthermore, decreases among college students
in use of mDma, cocaine, heroin, synthetic
opioids, and tranquilizers, coupled with decreased student perceptions of risk about
marijuana use, indicate that the illicitness of
marijuana in its many modern forms is up
for debate on college campuses regardless
of its legality. Demographically, other studies
have shown that as with alcohol (Wechsler et
al., 1994), males and students who identify as
White and/or latino/hispanic use and abuse
illicit drugs at higher rates than females and
students of other racial/ethnic backgrounds
(mcCabe et al., 2007). in 2015, 10.7% of a
sampled college student population used
contra drugs like cocaine, ecstasy, and marijuana (typical of a party culture), and elicited
abuse of alleged academic-enhancing prescription stimulants such as adderall (Johnston et
al., 2016). Whether at a fraternity house or in

T h e J o u r n a l o f C o l l e g e a n d U n i v e r s i t y St u d e n t H o u s i n g
The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Journal of College and University Student Housing - Volume 44, No. 3
