DS26: Hard drugs
Close to a quarter (92 out of 389) of respondents reported taking a “hard drug”, which is roughly five times the national average. According to the Office for National Statistics, 4.5% of people aged 16-24 take class A drugs, cannabis excluded. As with our cannabis figures, it seems likely that the Drug Survey respondents aren’t representative of the wider student body.
All in all, ketamine being the most popular drug taken by Imperial students who take hard drugs is in line with national trends from the end of the pandemic, with the most commonly cited statistic being an 85% increase in ketamine’s prevalence between 2023 and 2024.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the two most popular drugs in the survey (ketamine and MDMA) are both 20th century synthetic drugs, discovered in the 1960s and 1910s respectively, and both ingrained in London underground rave/techno culture.
In stark contrast to much of the sentiment found in the quotes on the page opposite this one, the reasons for taking drugs are largely positive, ranging from the desire to explore a new facet of experience to self-care encompassed by relaxation and enjoying oneself. Pairing this with the finding that only 13 individuals reported ever requiring medical attention due to drug intake (of 92 individuals reporting having taken drugs), it would see that drug use at Imperial is moderately responsible.
Nontheless, without clear details concerning what medical attention was necessary, it is difficult to compare these numbers with national statistics, which only refer to hospital admissions for explicit drug-abuse. Moreover, that “to feel good” was selected as a reason for taking drugs by 17% of users may hint at a widespread dependency to drugs in order to regulate emotions – it all depends on what is meant by “feeling good”.
Each faculty seems to have its own unique go-to hard drug. Unsurprisingly, Engineering’s favourite drug is cocaine. It certainly explains why many Engineering grads move so easily into the “Move Fast and Break Things” industry. Thankfully, those of us who understand everything about the rules governing ecosystems, cells, bonds within compounds, and our universe itself, ensure they maintain a permanent state of euphoria (instead of education-induced mania) with their favourite drug – MDMA. It seems all the medics at Imperial plan to study anaesthesiology, or maybe Imperial enrolled a herd of horses, but either way the medicine department loves a spot of ketamine.
Ketamine-cocaine, MDMA-cocaine, and MDMA-ketamine pairings are the most popular, in line with the popularity of each individual drug overall. In spite of many odd pairings being tried, nobody wants to cross nitrous oxide with “smart” drugs. Why take a smart drug if the next drug on your system will deprive your newly intelligent brain cells of oxygen?
Here are some of students' worst experiences with drugs:
WARNING: Some of the following stories mention acts of drug abuse, self-harm, suicide attempts, and other elements which could be distressing to some readers.
Once, I took shrooms in my accom and my friend at the time really wanted to laugh at me being high so they kept trying to get me to let them into my room, but I wouldn’t let them and it really fucked my trip up and I hallucinated about 100 people in my room and one of them was screaming at me and I ended up self harming so badly I had to get it checked out to see if I needed stitches the next day
Another time it was a really bad trip and the side effects lasted a few days after shrooms where I made a sweat puddle in my bed, nearly suffocated and felt so nauseous and it was not dissimilar from sleep paralysis but for 4 hours where I couldn’t even move to get my phone and I was overstimulated and I kept screaming “why” and crying so hard and realised life is pointless and the only effect we have on others is hurting them in the long run for selfish gain
I convinced myself I had been sent to hell, to be tortured for all eternity. I was watched over by Shiva, as I drowned in a multitude of universes, given the power of a god to create and to destroy and to manipulate. All of time and space was within my control, but certainly not within my understanding or even the vaguest intuition. It felt like I was fighting for every breath, trying my hardest to grip onto a single reality and to focus in on it, to ‘come back home’ to some sort of stability. Of course at first I tried to grip onto my own reality, the universe as I know it. This proved futile so I tried to bargain with Shiva, to let me grip onto anything that was at least pleasant. Each time I tried to bargain with her she’d send me spinning in circles, time progressing faster than anything I’d ever felt, such that the rate and violence of my torment was increased
Have tried to kill myself/almost died drinking in 2nd year of university due to stress. No intricate reason; the course didn’t support me, and I couldn’t hack the course.
To be honest I’ve never really had any bad experiences from taking drugs, and I’ve taken quite a lot! I always feel so much worse after drinking and quite often embarrass myself if I drink too much. I guess sometimes when I take coke I just look a bit silly and sweaty and probably quite obviously coked up, which is a bit embarrassing!
Took a 400mg edible thinking it was 40 while homeless abroad, had an extended panic attack, had a deep conversation with a man who didn’t speak english then threw up on him
I did shrooms and smoked weed and the grass turned into green anemones that were eating my feet, little black shadows where running around, I saw the wizards big mechanical face (from wizard of oz) in the sky and my friend turned into a mouse :) lol!
It was so bad I was seeing my mum standing over me and screaming so I rolled up into a ball and sat in the bath tub for what seemed like 40 hours. I look at my watch at some point and only 5 mins passed.
Took a tab of acid for the first time and proceeded to viscerally shit myself because I had food poisoning, lost my phone wallet keys, some kind stranger gave me a lift to my gfs house but she wasn’t in so I curled up in the foetal position on her doorstep until she got back
Was once on acid at a guy’s house already having a bad time, tripping out… then found out he had bed bugs and the whole living room was at risk (where we were sat). Felt like I could hear and feel them crawling under my skin!
Nothing. If I don’t take the tablet I will feel sick and dizziness. My mood will be super low and I will have a bunch of suicidal thoughts
