The Truth about Substance Use

By: The Center for Cura Personalis

At Gonzaga, we understand that students are young adults who are learning to make choices about substance use. Based on our Jesuit tradition of caring for the whole person, we are interested in their holistic well-being and not just reacting to a problem or incident on campus. We want to help students make healthy choices and support them in living their values and realizing that many of their peers share those same values.

Alcohol and drugs can be a real danger at all colleges and universities, Gonzaga included. But most GU students do not use to excess. In fact, there’s a big difference between how much students drink or use drugs, and how much they think their peers drink or use drugs. For example, our data from the spring 2016 National College Health Assessment survey shows that about 21% of students reported any marijuana use within the past 30 days—but the perceived use was 88%. So, students think that far more people use marijuana than actually do, and that may play a role in their decision-making. It’s important to have conversations based on fact, and not anecdotes.

Students also report using protective behaviors when socializing, such as eating before and while drinking, keeping track of their drinks, staying with the same group of friends and using a designated driver. Please talk with your students, if they are of legal drinking age, about the ways they intend to keep safe. For underage students, it’s important to send a zero-tolerance message.

Research shows that parents tend to:

• Underestimate how much their child is going to drink
• Overestimate how accepting other parents are of drinking
• Underestimate the extent to which other parents talk to their children

(Earle and Labrie, 2016)

Additionally, research says that:

• There is no benefit to early initiation – Starting to drink earlier increases the potential for problems later
• Heavy drinking in high school is associated with more drinking in college
• Drinking at home is not helpful, nor does it compare to drinking at college

Our biggest message to you is that students who believe their parents or family members disapprove of high-risk drinking, will be less likely to engage in the behavior.  Now is a great time to introduce or revisit this message.

Coming to college is likely not the first time that your Zag will encounter alcohol and other drugs. But if you haven’t talked about it before, this is an ideal time to start! Set an intention to begin a conversation, asking your student general questions about their hopes and fears about going to college. Then ask, specifically, what they’ve thought about the role that alcohol and other drugs might play in their college career. If you have college drinking stories, please don’t share these with your students! You may unintentionally be sending messages that condone drinking. Instead, ensure that your student is aware of the university’s expectations regarding alcohol. Consider reviewing the school policies around alcohol and drugs together, and emphasize the negative consequences of underage drinking and drug use. Help your student to consider not only the university’s conduct expectations, but also the potential negative consequences to their mental, emotional, and physical well-being from substance use. 

It’s important to keep this conversation going throughout their transition to life at Gonzaga, especially for students living in residence halls. Ask your student about what people do for fun, and the kinds of things they’re seeing. Ask what information their RA has shared about alcohol and other drugs. Because we think this is such an important topic to discuss with your student, we’ve developed a guide with additional information and tips and tricks. Please visit this link to familiarize yourself with the ZagTalk Brochure, a family guide to discussing alcohol and other drugs.

In addition, we want to highlight the on-campus resource for students in recovery from substance use disorders or those seeking sobriety. OUR House is the physical location that provides a safe, recovery-positive environment for students to connect with others on a similar journey. They have space to eat, study, host meetings and events and just hang out. We’ve also partnered with our colleagues in Housing and Residence Life to offer housing and roommate options for students in recovery. Please don’t hesitate to contact the Center for Cura Personalis (ccp@gonzaga.edu) if you would like to learn more about our collegiate recovery program or other resources available, if your student begins to struggle with their alcohol or drug use while at GU.

Remember that what you say really does matter! We are grateful for your role in helping students understand that becoming a Zag is not about drinking and using drugs. Together we can offer your student the opportunity to grow and thrive as a Gonzaga student and we look forward to welcoming them to campus.