Drug Abuse and the College Campus

Traditionally, American society has entrusted to its colleges and universities the authority to govern broad aspects of student life on campus; it has expected in return the mental, physical and moral well-being of the students in their charge. By the late 1960s, however, both the con cept and practice of in loco parentis by educational institutions had come under increasing attack, with chal lenges most frequently being directed to the right of colleges and universities to control nonacademic aspects of student life and conduct, including the use of psychoactive drugs. Despite the concern voiced by parents and educators over the escalating use of psychoactive drugs by young people and the waves of drug use reaching the college campus, college administrators, with virtually no experience in this area, generally found themselves unprepared to cope with the problem. The intent of this paper is to examine the responses of college and university administrators to student drug use, to explore the manner in which drug policies have been formulated and implemented in response to the perceived problem, and to reflect on the impact and effective ness of the policies which have emerged and which are currently in force at institutions of higher learning through out the country.