“The answer to the question ‘why’ is simple,” says a 21-year-old second-year student of the Maastricht Science Programme (MSP). “It is fun. Otherwise, you are locked inside your own head the whole time, your whole life.” She uses ketamine practically every weekend. “It is easy to get, not as addictive as cocaine, for example, and I feel good with it. It is also cheaper than alcohol and it doesn’t give you a hangover, while you do feel a little inebriated.”
Once or twice a year, she takes the hallucinating drug LSD. “It makes you process things differently, see things differently – super interesting. Drugs, and especially psychedelics, give you an experience that goes beyond what you would normally experience. They allow you to see and think in a way that you can’t with anything else. I think that everyone should use drugs at least once, in a safe and controlled way, of course.”
Microdosing
“I use a lot of different drugs, I have divided them into three different categories,” a student from the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (24) laughs. “The party drugs, such as cocaine, ketamine and XTC. The psychedelic drugs that I take every now and again to be inside my own head and to reflect. And finally, the weed that I use as self-medication.” What do you mean self-medication? “In the beginning, I used to only smoke weed with friends, but after a traumatic experience I discovered that by using cannabis I could forget my nightmares. Since then, I smoke a joint every evening before I go to sleep.”
Another FASoS student (30) does microdosing – using a small amount of drugs more often, in this case LSD. “For a whole month, you take one tenth of a normal dose every other day, after that you don’t use for six months. It is a kind of therapy for me – I have ADHD and a bipolar disorder. I can concentrate better, use it to meditate. I feel less unsure and have insights that I otherwise wouldn’t have.”
A law student (20) uses mainly cocaine and sometimes ketamine. “Cocaine has a rather elitist character, because it costs 60 euro per gram. But I have also experienced that it was just handed around. Or I say that I don’t have any money when a dealer offers me something in the club and they give me a line anyway.”
150 euro per month
According to the students, ketamine is cheaper, about 20-25 euro per small bag. “I usually buy about five grams, which costs me 75 euro and lasts about six months,” the law student says. Still, the cost can be considerable. “I spend 100 euro per month just on weed,” says the 24-year-old FASoS student. “If I also have some parties, it could run up to around 150 euro, 200 euro maximum per month. I admit, that is a lot of money.”
The students buy from dealers they know through others or who have offered them drugs before in a club. “You send them a message asking if they have anything that day,” says the MSP student. “Then you go to a certain address or they drive past in a car. You get into the car, they hand you the drugs, you pay and you leave.”
Testing
All four have given thought to the physical consequences of their drug use. “Always have your drugs tested and be careful what you mix,” says the law student. “I once bought ketamine, but afterwards it turned out to be just a kind of paracetamol.”
The 30-year-old FASoS student always does extensive research before she tries a new drug. “You can die from too much MDMA (the active ingredient in XTC, ed.), but you can’t take a lethal dose of LSD – although you can get a bad trip.” The MSP student would never use drugs that you have to inject into your body, such as heroine and crystal meth. “Those are extremely addictive, cause health risks and I actually think they are simply scary.”
Alcohol
Remarkably, all students regard alcohol as being more dangerous than drugs. “Alcohol is glorified, while drugs are looked down upon,” says the law student. “I never drink, because alcohol and I don’t get along: I’m an alcoholic. If I say that at a party, I am not taken seriously.”
Drinking is encouraged by everyone around you, says the 30-year-old FASoS student too. “If you can’t remember anything the next day, you have had a fun evening. People don’t realise that they are poisoning their own bodies.” “The stupidest things I have ever done, happened while I was drunk and not high”, the 24-year-old fellow student adds. “Alcohol is much more dangerous, but it is socially accepted. While I keep my drug use largely secret, because some will label you as ‘unreliable’.”
Drug deaths
The students give less thought to the social consequences. Tens of thousands of people die every year as a result of drug violence, litres of drug waste are dumped into nature, and in Columbia approximately 300 thousand hectares of woods has had to make way for coca plants.
“The average student is really not thinking about that,” says the law student. “I have never thought about it,” the MSP student admits. “It is like eating meat,” says the 24-year-old FASoS student. “You know it is not good, but you close your mind to it because it tastes good.” The exception is her 30-year-old fellow student. “That is the reason I don’t use cocaine and I don’t get on well with people who do. By doing so, you support violence in other parts of the world, I don’t approve of that.”
Mia Blacklaws, Cleo Freriks, Leilani Radaideh, Ainsley Shaw, Maria Zaccarian