Students take drugs. As headlines go, this is probably up there with “Dog bites man”. But it is the way that many take drugs, and the volume, that may well put the fear of God into their parents. The drill for a night can routinely be “cocktailing” – Ecstasy while getting ready to go out, more Es and MDMA powder while out, then chilling with ketamine, the horse tranquilliser, before bed.

If you think this sounds histrionic, think again. Though it is impossible to quantify exactly how many students are now “using”, anecdotal evidence suggests that drugs are more easily available within the university population than ever. The 2006-07 British Crime Survey estimates that nearly half of 16 to 24-year olds have used one or more illicit drugs in their lifetime, 24.1 per cent have used one or more in the last year and 14.3 per cent in the last month.

And, as many students say, drug-taking makes economic sense: Ecstasy tablets now cost an average £2 each. Taking a few and drinking water means that you can have a night out for the price of a vodka and Red Bull . A student at Newcastle says: “With E you don’t get hangovers, you don’t get fat, you don’t wreck your liver.” Last year the independent Bristol student newspaper Epigram reported on a poll which indicated that more than 50 per cent of students thought drug-taking was “normal”. The survey indicated that more than 8 per cent claimed to use Ecstasy regularly, compared with a national average of 3 per cent. The author made the valid point that “at 40 per cent, the University of Bristol has one of the highest rates of intake from private schools in the country, particularly those with a reputation for drug use”.

So what are universities doing? Well, most accept that some abuse is inevitable, thus they have well-developed counselling, welfare and support services. If a student confides that he or she has a problem, a battery of services can kick in. The Oxford University Student Union welfare handbook includes a lengthy section on drugs. It advises students not to take alcohol and drugs together, particularly alcohol and cocaine, but adds “ . . . set yourself limits, such as one alcoholic drink per line, if you are hellbent on doing it”.

But it also disabuses students of the romantic notion that colleges will protect drug-users. “Popular myth has it that a college will protect you from the police to avoid bad media publicity,” it says. “This is not an attitude it would be wise to rely on. Colleges are more likely to fear the consequences of being seen as ‘soft on drugs’.” Many universities will shop a student to the police, if he or she ignores a warning.

But, sophisticated as many pastoral services are, some students believe that too much help can breed complacency. Hannah, in Manchester, says: “If you have a problem and you’ve run out of money or fallen behind with work, you can get funding. That’s great – but people know there’s something to catch them if they fall.”

Is drug-taking increasing? “I’m constantly surprised by how many people do it as a routine part of their lives,” she says. “People take E and ketamine just watching TV. There’s a kind of warped reality.” Andrew, at Sussex University, says: “It can be quite hard to resist the peer pressure, but it’s worrying when you see personalities change. A flatmate once went missing for three days.”

Most universities won’t inform the parents if a student seeks help, because the service is confidential and students are adults. But there is often little that a university can do. Most drug-taking takes place in homes and clubs, where it has no jurisdiction.

Some students to whom I spoke reported increasing use of Modafinil, the antinarcolepsy drug that combats the comedown from prolonged drug use and aids studies by enhancing focus. But this is small beer compared with the cases when students become dealers. Harry Shapiro, of Drugscope, the independent research charity, says that some students get into dealing to pay their way through university.

Drugscope’s policy is that no illegal drug is safe. “The key message is that there are too many unknowns,” says Shapiro. However, he adds that it may be hard for parents to understand that taking drugs “isn’t that remarkable”. Indeed, considering how many young people are using amphetamines, casualties seem relatively few. Shapiro says that the effects of some drugs are quite subtle and can depend on the user’s mood. “Some of the bad effects are because you are anxious about bad feelings happening,” he says.

Avon and Somerset Police, for instance, says that it has no knowledge of a higher-than-average E use among students in Bristol. Jessica, at Leeds University, certainly believes that those in authority don’t know the scale of the usage. “Sniffer dogs came into our halls but they were looking for weed,” she says. “I would say that, of the people I know at university, only about three have never taken anything. For most, it’s normal.”

Students’ names have been changed

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