Review of Student Drug and Alcohol Awareness Week

For the first time, between 7-13 November 2022, SOS-UK coordinated Student Drug and Alcohol Awareness Week.

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We called for universities and students' unions to pledge to run activities and join the conversation about student drug and alcohol use. Our aim was to encourage and enable discussions around student substance use, whilst providing both education and safe alternatives.

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We provided further information and communications about Drug and Alcohol Awareness Week in the lead up to it, with additional resources provided to encourage and enable participation.

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In the lead up to and during the week, across our social media channels, we shared: ideas of what institutions and/or students’ unions could do during the week; substance use and wellbeing information (including: impacts of drugs on mental health; the main reasons for drug use that we found in our research; things to consider/questions to ask yourself before having any experience with recreational drugs; information on comedowns) and some of our key research findings.

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We received pledges from 17 universities and/or students’ unions:

• Warwick students’ union

• Chesterfield college

• University of Plymouth student union

• UWE Bristol

• Bolton SU

• De Montfort SU

• University of Buckingham

• Union of UEA Students

• Roehampton students’ union

• Keele University

• Edinburgh University Students’ Association

• Edge Hill Students’ Union

• Staffordshire University Students’ Union

• University of Cumbria SU

• Bath Spa University Student Union

• Liverpool Hope SU

• Greenwich Students’ Union

To read more and see what some of the institutions and students’ unions that pledged got up to during awareness week, click here: www.sos-uk.org/resources/student-drug-and-alcohol-awareness-week-round-up

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