[An investigation into attitudes towards the legalisation of drugs - Do students' views of legalisation differ according to their year of study?]

by

Analysis of Results

Here the responses of the students collected in survey are analysed. Our main focus is to check whether the responses of students about drug availability and influence differ on the basis of their study of year or not. For this purpose, Chi-Square test of independency is used. The cross tabulations for different questions in the survey and the responses are given here along with the Chi-Square statistics.

Students form year 1, 2, and 3 participated in the survey in equal proportions that is 15 students from each year of study. The above clustered bar graph shows that students from year 2 were mostly comprised of female students. While male students were in majority in first year students and third year students.

In the survey, students were asked for extent to which they have access to drugs. Despite of a general overview, this question was detailed for different types of drugs. Students responded about the degree of their access to each type of drugs. Following are their responses.

Table 1: Availability of Drugs

Availability of Drugs

Easy

Fairly Easy

Difficult

Impossible

Unsure

Year

1

2

3

1

2

3

1

2

3

1

2

3

1

2

3

Amphetamines (Speed)

0

1

0

5

4

4

3

5

6

2

1

0

5

4

5

Cannabis (weed)

9

7

6

5

6

4

0

1

2

0

1

0

1

0

3

Cocaine (Charlie)

4

0

0

3

4

5

4

5

4

1

1

3

3

5

3

Crack cocaine

0

0

0

2

2

4

6

7

5

3

1

2

4

5

4

Ecstasy (MDMA)

2

1

0

6

7

4

4

4

6

1

1

2

2

2

3

Legal Highs

4

3

3

6

7

7

3

4

3

1

1

0

1

0

2

LSD (acid)

1

0

0

5

1

3

4

9

4

1

1

2

4

4

6

Methedrone (m-kat)

3

2

5

3

6

3

4

5

3

2

1

0

3

1

4

Heroin (smack)

0

0

0

1

0

3

6

8

5

5

2

2

3

5

5

Ketamine (KET)

3

0

4

6

5

5

0

7

0

5

1

0

1

2

6

Psychedelic mushrooms

0

0

1

4

1

2

4

6

4

2

1

1

5

7

7

Total

26

14

19

46

43

44

38

61

42

23

12

12

32

35

48

Availability of drugs is more to the students of first then to the students of second year and third year. Either this difference is statistically significant or not is evident by the significance of Chi-Square statistics for test of independence. Coefficients of Chi-Square test to check if the availability of drugs differs among the students of each year are as follows.

Table 2: Chi-Square Coefficient for Availability of Drugs

Drugs

Chi-Square Calculated

Level of significance

Amphetamines (Speed)

5.3663

0.75

Cannabis (weed)

17.33636

0.05

Cocaine (Charlie)

10.83368

0.25

Crack cocaine

2.487179

0.99

Ecstasy (MDMA)

3.785714

0.90

Legal Highs

7.516667

0.50

LSD (acid)

9.934174

0.50

Methedrone (m-kat)

7.15

0.75

Heroin (smack)

6.523279

0.75

Ketamine (KET)

32.53274

0.00

Psychedelic mushrooms

6.968672

0.75

Chi-Square statistics and the p-values in the above table show that availability of most of the drugs is similar to every student except Cannabis (weed) and Ketamine (KET) whose chi-square coefficients are significant. These two types of drugs were available to the students of year 2 and 3 with more than it was to the students of year 1.

To see what are the environmental differences between the students of different years in that can impact the use of drugs, students were asked that about the environments in which they have witnessed the drug usage. Following is the summary of their responses.

Table 3: Environment in which students witness the use of drugs

Environment in which students witness the use of drugs

Total

year

On University campus

Private student Housing

Nightclubs

Student accommodation

Parks/rural areas

Streets/city centre

Other

1

0

3

14

4

14

10

4

49

2

0

2

13

7

5

10

0

37

3

2

7

12

5

10

9

4

49

Total

2

12

39

16

29

29

8

135

Comparatively the students of year 1and 3 witnessed more drug usage than the students in year 2 does. The reason of this difference might be the majority of females in year 2. Nightclubs, parks or rural areas, and streets or city centre are the most common places where students witness the drug usage. Chi-Square value for these responses is 19.40471 with level of significance 0.10. Hence the observations of drug usage are statistically significantly different for the students of year 1 and 3 from students of year ...