Marijuana and illegal drug use is on the rise in the U.S., but it appears the use of it on campus hasn’t increased.
A national survey released Sept. 16 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services revealed illegal drug use in the U.S. increased between 2008 and 2009.
Marijuana use among full-time college students aged 18 to 22  increased from 17.9 percent in 2008 to 20.2 percent in 2009.
According to the survey, marijuana is now the most commonly used illicit drug.
Sgt. Blake Tabor, LSU Police Department spokesman, said marijuana’s presence on campus has not increased.
Seventy arrests occurred on campus pertaining to drug law in 2006, 36 in 2007 and 98 in 2008, according to LSUPD statistics. The statistics for 2009 have yet to be released.
“I wouldn’t say that we’ve seen a spike,” Tabor said. “Obviously, universities being what they are, we understand that students are going to experiment with the use of marijuana and the things of that nature.”
The Louisiana branch of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws advocates for safe and legal access to medical cannabis for suffering patients, said Louisiana NORML Executive Director Robert Delaney.
The branch recently started a second chapter based in New Orleans.
“We’re talking about medicine here,” Delaney said. “We’re not advocating so people can legally get high.”
In the last 30 years, there have been tens of thousands of medical scientific studies that have verified the credibility of medical cannabis, Delaney said.
“Regardless of where you stand, whatever your position is on the war on marijuana — because it is in fact a war — the thing we’re hoping to get people to agree to is to take medical patients off this battlefield,” Delaney said.
Christine Nguyen, architecture sophomore, said she has a lot of friends who frequently smoke marijuana “just to chill out” to the point where she has a hard time telling if they are under the influence or not.
“It really confuses me,” Nguyen said. “The next day they’ll tell me they were high, and I’m just like, ‘Oh, I didn’t know.'”
University Wellness Education coordinator Kathryn Saichuk believes the growing acceptance of marijuana, among other drugs, is the cause for the recent spike.
“A lot of people don’t perceive marijuana as a harmful substance anymore,” Saichuk said. “They see it as no worse than alcohol, and they don’t see it as  being as bad as tobacco.”
But Saichuk said that perception isn’t true.
One joint has about the same amount of carbon monoxide as four cigarettes and the tar in five cigarettes, and there is a higher rate of head, neck, bladder and esophageal cancer related to marijuana use than with cigarettes, Saichuk said.
Marijuana has even been linked to testicular cancer, she said.
Saichuk does not believe marijuana should be legalized.
“I don’t believe in the legalization of any drug or substance whose negative consequences outweigh the positive,” Saichuk said.
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Contact Julian Tate at [email protected]