FROM STUDENTS' PERSPECTIVE, DRUG USE AT GONZAGA WIDESPREAD

There are Gonzaga students who use illegal drugs.

"I would be willing to venture a guess that as high as 75 percent of
students at this school have at least tried marijuana once," a male
senior student said. "And I wouldn't be surprised to find out that
somewhere between 30 and 50 percent use it on a regular, recreational
basis."

"It doesn't matter what dorm you live in," a male freshman student
said. "You know someone who knows how to get weed."

Though this information may come as utterly unremarkable college
student behavior, it is rarely discussed in the context of Gonzaga.

12 students spoke to the Bulletin on condition of anonymity due to the
illegal nature of their actions.

The students agree that marijuana constitutes the vast majority of
non-pharmaceutical drug use at Gonzaga, so much so that many
categorize it differently. Illicit self-medication of Adderall, a
prescription attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
medication used to stay awake and concentrate while studying, is also
prevalent.

"The two main drugs are weed and Adderall," a male sophomore said.
"The motivators for those are, for Adderall, because a lot of people
feel that they can't get things done on their own. And then weed
because of all the stress ... People just want to relax."

"Weed makes the COG tolerable," a male freshman said.

The senior sees this to be in no way specific to Gonzaga: "I think it
is a combination of the age group, the generation ... our generation
is all about thinking for themselves, so it almost feels like a
cultural thing, kind of integral for most people our age," he said.

"For example, most people our age who don't smoke weed don't seem to
be fazed when they are around it," he said. "It seems to be a very
socially accepted thing to do. That is a combination of factors: the
free-thinking generation, the stress of being in college, the
open-mindedness of wanting to try different things."

"I feel like most people who smoke [marijuana] are guys," a female
freshman student said. "I don't like it much because I don't do it
much and trip out really bad when I do."

Many students point to the fact that despite the common usage, there
is little to no peer pressure to do drugs.

"There is the least amount of peer pressure I have seen at this school
when it comes to marijuana," a senior said. "If you want to smoke,
smoke. If not, hang out. To each their own. We have kind of created
our own system of rules. I would say that 98 percent of students at
this school don't have a problem being around it. Say if they were at
a party where it was used, they would just shrug it off or wouldn't
even think about it."

Many point to a change in American opinion on marijuana to explain
this phenomenon. The near passage of Proposition 19 in California,
purposefully lax punishment for possession in Denver, former
Republican New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson endorsing legalization and the
ease of obtaining medical use permits all point to an evolving
perception, which can be seen at Gonzaga.

"For the amount of weed smoked here, the amount of maturity and
responsibility, if you can even label an illegal act as being mature
and responsible, is shown through the lack of peer pressure," the
senior said. "No one judges, no one holds it against you." He also
noted that students will often remove themselves from a party in order
to smoke. He believes that this is partly out of respect for those who
do not partake, and partly because they do not want to share.

"We have some respectful stoners at this school. They are like, 'Let's
remove ourselves in case we are bothering anyone,'" he said.

"I use weed because I like how it makes me feel," the senior said. "It
is relaxing, it is centering, it takes your mind off your troubles.
All the same reasons people would say they go out and have a beer or
something, to escape from the stressful reality."

"Probably 10 to 15 percent of students take Adderall at this school.
Maybe less than 5 percent of those have a prescription," another male
senior said. "It allows me to do everything I want to on a given week.
I can still perform well in school and party hard, too. It kind of
embodies the 'work hard, play hard' mentality. You can have it all."

As compared to other schools, most students agree that the
recreational drug issue at Gonzaga stops mostly with marijuana and
Adderall.

"If you go to any state school, there is coke [cocaine] everywhere,"
another male sophomore said.

"There is very little drug use beyond marijuana at this school," a
senior said. "You get the occasional person doing cocaine or this or
that, 'shrooms once in awhile. I have probably met two people who have
done heroin. E [ecstasy] sometimes, but it is hard to find. Rarely
acid [LSD]."

"There really are not many hard drugs that go around this school, and
I think the main reason is there is no supply. Pot, you can grow
anywhere," he said.

"Because Gonzaga is mostly upper-middle-class kids who don't really
have to work or need anything that they don't already have, hard drug
use just isn't relevant," a sophomore said. "We don't fit the profile
of the typical hard drug user."

Several students acknowledge having recreationally tried a variety of
"harder" drugs, including cocaine, LSD, ecstasy, molly (pure MDMA, the
active ingredient in ecstasy), magic mushrooms, Vicodin, Hydrocodone
and a variety of other pharmaceuticals. Most say that these are very
rare experiments, and nothing more.

"You are never going to go to a college, besides BYU, that that
doesn't happen," a senior said. "You would be hard-pressed to find a
school where no students are experimenting with harder drugs.
Surprisingly, I would say there is far less hard drug use at this
school than at the average college."