Differences in Substance Use by Men and Women College Students

A recent report from the National Institutes of Health documents the use of alcohol, tobacco, and drugs by adults in the United States. The data is broken down by gender, age, and enrollment in higher education.

The report shows that 23.3 percent of women college students had used some form of marijuana in the 30 days prior to the survey. For men, the figure was 19.8 percent.

Nearly two thirds of women in college had consumed alcohol in the 30 days prior to the survey, compared to 56.8 percent of male college students. College men were more likely than women to report consuming alcohol daily over the 30-day period. About a quarter of college men and women reported having five drinks in a row within the two weeks prior to the survey but men were more than twice as likely as women to report having 10 drinks in a row in the previous two weeks.

College men were significantly more likely to have smoked cigarettes than their women peers. But college women were slightly more likely than college men to have vaped a product containing nicotine.

Some 4.4 percent of college men said they had used a drug other than marijuana over the previous 30 days. This was more than double the rate for college women. Men in college were four times more likely to use hallucinogens than college women and 2.5 times more likely to use cocaine.