gair rhydd Monday October 13th 2014 | freeword | Issue 1033
In this week’s issue: We say no to YOLO, introduce this year’s Student Elections, debate the value of premium rate halls, and reveal the location of this year’s Welsh Varsity.
High Marks: Student Drug Use Revealed Exclusive Gair Rhydd poll reveals two-thirds of Cardiff students have taken illegal drugs
EXCLUSIVE: Georgia Hamer Michael O’ConnellDavidson
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survey conducted by Gair Rhydd revealed that over 60% of Cardiff University students have taken illegal drugs. Of this number, 81% said that they had done so whilst enrolled at the University. The data, gathered anonymously online, also found that 31% of those surveyed had taken what they would describe as a ‘hard drug’ and that drug users at Cardiff University spend, on average, £40 a month on the habit.
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These findings raise this issue of whether drug culture amongst students is having a negative impact on students academically. With this in mind it is interesting to note that very few respondents who admitted to taking drugs during their time at university reported it to have had a negative effect on their academic experience. One respondent commented, in reference to ‘a friend’, that they had ‘made a test having taken MD’ and ‘still managed to pass’.
Another student added that they did not believe their use of drugs to ‘affect anything major’ – except their ‘ability not to laugh at mildly funny things’. Of the 38% of students surveyed who stated that they have not taken illegal drugs, a number made comments on how they felt as if they were in a ‘minority’ and that coming into contact with drug users at university is ‘unavoidable’. Marijuana, typically viewed by the students surveyed as ‘relatively
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harmless’, emerged as the most commonly used drug amongst the students surveyed. The most commonly used drug amongst the students surveyed appeared to be marijuana, a drug that was typically viewed as ‘relatively harmless’ by respondents. However, it was also noted that the illegality of the drug and the ‘taboo placed on it by society’ makes it ‘harder to do in a safe and controlled way.’ Within the debate surrounding the legalisation of the drug, a frequent
Pictured: A young man celebrating 4/20 (Photographer: Max Crowe)
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