University of Washington - Drug Scene

From my experience, drugs are...

From my experience, drugs are around but not in excess. There are groups who do stuff, but really everyone just sticks to drinking.

I am no prude, so pardon my...

I am no prude, so pardon my candidness in regard to this subject. UW is a school that revolves around alcohol. Yes, there is hard drug use, especially among the wealthier students. Marijuana is not as prevalent as alcohol, at least, not in the party scene.

Well, there’s a lot of weed—it’s...

Well, there’s a lot of weed—it’s Seattle. We are not really cued in on hard drugs.

I can’t compare it to other...

I can’t compare it to other campuses. I see people smoking cigarettes, but not that many. I’ve been at parties where people smoke weed. I’ve been to a few parties where people were doing heavier things such as cocaine or hallucinogens, although this was not on campus, but at someone’s apartment. I think that, for the most part, people who live on campus are not heavy drug users, whereas people who have their own apartments and throw frequent parties may be more into the recreational stuff. I’ve never met anyone whose drug use has had a single effect on their ability to pass their classes or hold down a job, although there have to be people like that around here. I don’t see much focus on keeping the campus drug free and all that, but it seems to be that people know the consequences and make their decisions to use or what not privately, and then act on them.

We were educated on this stuff...

We were educated on this stuff from grade school on, and aside from rehab, there isn’t much you can say to someone by the time they have hit college that they haven’t heard before. People want to be experimental in college, and being away from home, they definitely seem more prone to do drugs at least once or twice, at parties or raves, for the experience. It’s easy to buy things if you know the right people.