A survey of over 16,000 university students , from 14 different UK universities (Bristol, UCL, Warwick, Edinburgh, Sheffield, Belfast, Durham, Southampton, Sussex, Exeter, St Andrews, Birmingham, Lincoln and Glasgow), found that drug use is still prevalent at university despite the range of rules imposed by our series of national lockdowns such as bubbles, rules of six etc.

The Survey was conducted by The Tab and was completed by 16,017 respondents in total. The Tab is a long-running (founded in 2009) student journalism site covering youth culture and student culture and a proven launchpad for young people aspiring to be journalists.

The survey asked students about their drug of choice, whether they have been taking more drugs since the pandemic and the emotional reasons behind their drug use.

When asked about their own drug use, only one third of students said they were doing drugs more often since lockdown. However, when presented with the same question phrased about other students, “do you think students are doing more drugs since the pandemic?”, a majority (55%) of students said they thought that their fellow students have beendoing more drugs since the pandemic started.

Cannabis and cocaine most popular drugs

The survey asked about what substances studeants were taking, giving a range of options of the most common drugs among young people using recreationally – cannabis, ketamine, cocaine, MDMA, Xanax, nitrous oxide, amphetamines and hallucinogenics – 44 per cent of students (6,908 respondents) said they used cannabis most often. The next most popular drug was cocaine, with 1,959 (12.2%) respondents using it, followed by nitrous oxide (11.9%), ketamine with 1,842 (11.5%), and then hallucinogenics (7.3%). The least popular drugs from the options provided in the survey were amphetamines (taken by just 3.1% respondents) and Xanax (3.6%).

Motivation

The survey also asked students why they were doing drugs, presenting respondents with three key options:

1. Self-medication/relaxation
2. Boredom/as a distraction  and
3. Others are taking drugs (presumably a way of asking about peer pressure).

More than two out of five (44%) students said they took drugs primarily because of boredom, with a high proportion (37.5%) also saying they took drug to relax or self-medicate with a surprisingly high one in six respondents (17%) admitting that they mainly took drugs because other people did. The survey did not permit students to choose more than one option in answering this question but the evidence base suggests that most people have more than one reason for using substances.

Looking forwards

This largescale survey gives a good insight into the most popular drugs among young people at University and, if and when our nightlife sector finally re-opens, confirms that venues will need to ensure that they can respond to people who get into trouble through their use of cocaine and ketamine in particular.

Changes in alcohol use

• 43% of the sample reported an increase in the frequency of drinking (25% a decrease) while 36% of the sample reported an increase in the amount of alcohol they drank on a typical day (22% a decrease) compared to before COVID-19.
• 30% reported starting drinking earlier in the day compared to before COVID-19 and 42% wanted to drink less in the next 30 days.
• Drinking alone at home while on video/audio calls, chats or ‘watch parties’ was more commonly reported during COVID-19 (40%) compared to pre-COVID-19 (16%).
• Of 75% who were drinking alone at the time of the survey, 41% reported that they were drinking alone more often compared to before COVID-19.
• 41% of people with a mental health or neuro-developmental condition reported they were drinking more due to increased stress about COVID-19 compared to 21% of people without mental health or neuro-developmental conditions.
• Those who increased drinking and reported a mental health or neuro-developmental condition were at least twice as likely to report feeling (more) depressed (36% vs. 13%) and/or lonely (30% vs. 15%).

Changes in the use of other drugs

• The drug types reportedly used in the past 30 days by this sample were THC containing cannabis products (28%), followed by CBD only cannabis products (9%), then cocaine (7%), MDMA (6%), prescription benzodiazepines (5%), amphetamine (4%), prescription opioids and LSD each at 3%.
• 39% of respondents who used cannabis in the past year reported increased use of THC containing cannabis products compared to before COVID-19 with the  biggest increases reported by respondents in Australia (49%) and the USA (46%).
• For other drugs, 37% reported having increased their use of prescription
  benzodiazepines, 26% CBD only cannabis products, 23% psilocybin, and 21% for cocaine, LSD and ketamine.
• The use of drugs that are commonly used in party settings saw the biggest decreases. More than one third of respondents who reported use of MDMA (41%), cocaine (38%), amphetamine (35%) and ketamine (34%) indicated that they used less frequently when compared to before COVID-19.

Drug markets

• While decreased availability of illegal drugs compared to before COVID-19 was reported by 56%, what is striking is that perceptions of purity and the range of drugs remained largely unchanged reflecting the resilience of the illicit drug trade and existing supplies being able to meet demand through a period of less international trade and travel.
• Over one third (36%) of respondents who used illegal/non-prescribed drugs reported that the price of illegal drugs in their country increased compared to before COVID-19.
• While over half (52%) reported that their last drug purchase was not impacted by the pandemic, some respondents reported signs of market scarcity, including paying a higher price (14%), taking longer to get the drugs than usual (10%), more difficulty finding a supplier (8%) and more difficulty finding their drug of choice (5%).
• At the last purchase between March and June 2020, 16% reported buying larger quantities compared with before COVID-19. Notably, stockpiling was reported as a reason for increased drug use, particularly for THC-containing cannabis (20%).

Conclusion

It will be interesting to see whether these changes in patterns of consumption are maintained, particularly if the country faces another extended period of lockdown as many fear. Overall, readers will have noticed that many, but far from all, regular users of cocaine and Ecstasy reduced their consumption, presumably because they would normally take these substances in a social situation on a night out. We must wait and see whether people who have been denied this part of their lifestyle return to using drugs on a night out if and when the night-time economy fully re-opens.

Once a year, NHS Digital publishes a really useful compendium of drug misuse statistics overseen by the Office of National Statistics which covers:

• Deaths related to poisoning by drug misuse
• Drug misuse among adults
• Drug misuses among young people
• Drug seizures.

You can see the latest set of here which covers data for the 2018/19 financial year.

Hospital admissions

Three measures for the number of drug related hospital admissions have been calculated using Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data:

Measure 1

Hospital admissions with a primary diagnosis of drug-related mental and behavioural disorders – referred to as admissions for drug related mental and behavioural disorders.

Measure 2

Hospital admissions with a primary diagnosis of poisoning by drugs, that are listed as controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 (includes both intentional and unintentional poisoning) – referred to as admissions for poisoning by drug misuse.

For measures 1 and 2, a drug related mental and behavioural disorder, or poisoning by drug misuse were the main reason for the admission (primary diagnosis).

Measure 3

Hospital admissions with a primary or secondary diagnosis of drug-related mental and behavioural disorders – referred to as admissions where drug related mental and behavioural disorders were a factor.

In 2018/19 there were 7,376 admissions for drug related mental and behavioural disorders, a 2% increase on 2017/18 (7,258), but 14% less than 3 years ago in 2015/16 (8,621). This was preceded by a period of mostly increases; the current level still being 30% higher than 2008/09 (5,668). The number of admissions for 2018/19 represents a rate of 13 per 100,000 population.

There were 18,053 admissions for poisoning by drug misuse, a 6% increase on 2017/18, and 16% higher than in 2012/13 (15,580).

Deaths

The figures presented here are for deaths registered each year, rather than deaths occurring each year. Almost all drug-related deaths are certified by a coroner. Due to the length of time it takes a coroner to complete an inquest, about half of drug-related deaths registered in a particular year will have actually occurred prior to that year.

For each year in the last decade, around two-thirds of all drug poisoning deaths were from drug misuse. In 2018 there were 2,917 deaths relating to drug misuse, out of a total of 4,359 drug poisoning deaths.
The rate of deaths relating to drug misuse in 2018 was 50.9 deaths per million people; an increase compared to 43.9 deaths per million people in 2017.

The rate of male drug misuse deaths is over two and a half times greater than the female rate.

81% (2,353) of deaths related to drug misuse were due to accidental poisoning by drugs, medicaments and biological substances. There were 419 suicides related to drug misuse.

2019 statistics image from NHS digital

Adult drug use

Levels of adult (aged 16-59) drug use during the last year were higher among men than among women. Almost one in eight men (12.6%) reported taking ‘any drug’ in the last year compared with 6.3 per cent of women.

When considering individual drugs:

• Around one in ten (10.3%) men reported using cannabis in the last year compared with one in twenty women (5.0%);
• Men were more than twice as likely to have taken powder cocaine in the last year (4.0% of men compared with 1.7% of women);
• 2.1% of men reported having taken ecstasy in the last year compared with 1.0% of women.

Only the most common drug types are shown in the chart below.

2019 statistics image from NHS digital

Young people drug use

NHS Digital’s Smoking, Drinking and Drug use among Young People (SDD) report surveys pupils in secondary schools across England every 2 years. It provides information on the smoking, drinking and drug use behaviours of young people in years 7 to 11, who are primarily aged 11 to 15. In 2018:

• 24% of pupils reported they had ever taken drugs, the same as in 2016.
• The likelihood of having ever taken drugs increased with age, from 9% of 11 year olds to 38% of 15 year olds.
• 17% of pupils said that they had taken drugs in the last year, compared to 18% in 2016 (not a statistically significant difference).
• Cannabis is the drug that pupils are most likely to have taken in the last year, with 8% saying they had done so; the same as in 2016 but below the 13% reported in 2001.

There is also interesting information from the SDD report about how easy it is for young people to get drugs.

The following are all based on pupils who had taken drugs on more than one occasion:

• On the first occassion they tried drugs, 57% said they had got the drugs from a friend, with most of these being from a friend of the same age.
• Overall 11% said they got drugs from a dealer, but this was 29% where a class A drug was taken.
• 44% of pupils said they were outdoors (in a street, park or other outdoor area) when they last obtained drugs, by far the most common type of location. 12% said they obtained drugs whilst at school.

Drug seizures

Police forces and Border Force made a total of 135,728 drug seizures in England and Wales in 2017/18, a 2% decrease compared with the previous year (139,019). This is the sixth consecutive annual fall.

For consistency, drugs are counted in their current classification for the entire time series shown.

Of course, the most likely interpretation of this falling trend is that cuts in public expenditure have resulted in less enforcement activities.

2019 statistics image from NHS digital