Pubdate: Tues, 29 June 1999 Source: Daily Telegraph (UK) Copyright: of Telegraph Group Limited 1999 Contact: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ Author: Nicole Martin DRUGS AT CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY WHILE I was at Cambridge University, heavy workloads meant that few students indulged in anything "harder" than a furtive joint in a friend's bedroom. Those who dared to experiment with speed, ecstasy and acid tended to wait until after the end-of-year exams. The Cambridge drinking society culture meant that alcohol provided the focus of any night out. Membership of a drinking society, such as the Untouchables, the Idlers, the Scarlets or the Cherubs, was a passport to the university's social scene and a marker of popularity. Potential members were always required to pass a ritualistic, alcohol-fuelled initiation ceremony - which, in some cases, ended in hospital with the latest recruit having his stomach pumped. Two years on from my graduation, drug use at Cambridge University seems to have become much more widespread. When I return for a fleeting visit, I am told that drugs are now "just a phone call away". A second-year social anthropology student, whose father allows him to grow marijuana in his garden, says he has just spent 200 pounds "stocking up" for celebrations at the end of his exams. "I take cocaine, magic mushrooms, acid and ecstasy and, when I'm feeling particularly decadent, I smoke every day. Drugs are a lifestyle," he says. A second-year medical student tells me he smokes cannabis every day and experiments with other drugs, such as ecstasy, acid and cocaine, "on special occasions". After a day of smoking, he "occasionally loses it", but he insists he is not worried about the health risks of illegal drugs. "I'm not addicted. I am intelligent enough to make sensible decisions," he says. "I'm a medic - I know what drugs do to me and I'm not scared at all. The first time I took a pill, I tested it." He describes the extensive media coverage of Leah Betts, who died after taking an ecstasy pill, as "alarmist". "Millions take ecstasy every week. It's far safer than Nato's bombing campaign ever was," he says flippantly. He is still smoking marijuana as he prepares for his exams, despite acknowledging that drugs have "blatantly" affected his studies in the past. - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck