Survey: 14,000 students gets high

A recent study shows that 14,000 students use drugs to promote their own school performance. Now more organizations are calling out for caution.

– ⁠ The fact that so many Norwegian students use drugs to promote their own student achievements is very worrying, says Marte Øien, head of the Norwegian Student Organization (NSO), about Sentio’s recent study on intoxicants among students in Norway.

The survey was conducted on behalf of NSO and Universitas, and shows, among other things, that 5 percent of Norwegian students say they use drugs to promote their own school performance. This corresponds to just under 14,000 students in Norway, according to Statistics Norway (Statistisk Sentralbyrå – SSB).

The survey shows that 24 percent of those who answered yes to the question of using drugs to promote their own school performance use amphetamines, while 22 percent state that they use cannabis.

Professor at the Center for Substance Abuse and Addiction Research (SERAF) at the University of Oslo (UiO), Thomas Clausen, believes that there is not necessarily a correlation between academic performance and substance abuse.

– There is little reason to believe that drug use generally promotes performance. That some people use drugs to promote presentation is unfortunate, and for some may be counterintuitive, Clausen explains to Universitas.