W&m Student Drinking Began Before Arrival

Study Finds Under-21 Use

September 14, 1989|By MARK DI VINCENZO Staff Writer

WILLIAMSBURG — A study of drug and alcohol use at The College of William and Mary shows most students drink beer and liquor, and they started "long before" they reached W&M.

The study's analysis, which uses 2-year-old data but was completed this summer, reveals an anti-alcohol attitude among many students, but that feeling hasn't resulted in diminished alcohol use. There is a declining tolerance for drug usage as well, and the study's data, coupled with past national data, also indicate that fewer students are using illegal drugs.

The office of student affairs declined Wednesday to release the numbers from the study.

"The fact that most of the students here who drink started long before they came to the college suggests that the drinking law is not keeping students from drinking before they turn 21," said W&M sociology professor David P. Aday Jr., who conducted the study and hopes to do another one, probably in the spring.

"What it boils down to is people start drinking at an age earlier than 18, when most of them come here, and colleges can't do a whole lot more than parents and society can do," said W&M Police Director Richard S. Cumbee.

The fact that many students drink alcoholic beverages while in high school also suggests, Aday said, that college adminis trators and campus police officers have even less control over influencing and educating students about the effects of alcoholic beverages than was once thought.

Cumbee estimates "more than half" of the students under 21 have fake identification cards; that means about 2,000 W&M students can buy alcoholic beverages illegally in Williamsburg.

"Alcohol-related violations have increased considerably," since 1987, when the drinking-age law was in full effect, Cumbee said.

He cites three reasons: Students have been slow to adhere to the law; they often drink "an evening's worth of alcohol" in less than an hour before they leave their residences to socialize; and there are few night-time activities in Williamsburg for students under 21.

Before the minimum age was changed, the college had an educational program that stressed "responsible drinking" and worked, Cumbee said. "But most students are not supposed to be drinking at all, so the law has sort of cramped our style, and consumption of alcohol here has been driven underground."

Aday said the study's data also shows that many younger students said they are "less accepting" of alcohol consumption but probably drink as much as the other students.

"They're saying, `Gee, we don't approve of drinking alcohol,' but here they are drinking alcohol," he said. "It's not really hypocritical. They're just doing what everyone else is doing. I would speculate that they're feeling more peer pressure, but that might be quite different from their own feelings."

The survey's good news is that fewer students appear to be using illegal drugs; that's the national trend.

That assertion, based on comparisons between drugs used in the recent past by high school seniors nationwide and by W&M students, is supported by Cumbee, who said the number of drug overdoses on campus has dipped in recent years and continues to do so.

As students here have become less tolerant of their drug-using peers, they have begun reporting drug sales and even drug usage to the campus police department. "This is a relatively new trend: students calling us to report drug selling and drug using," Cumbee said. "I think it has more to do with a decline in the tolerance level because we believe fewer students are using drugs."

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