“No one smokes weed because they don’t have time. It makes you so fucking lazy.”

Over the past few weeks, Varsity has been talking to students across the university from all undergraduate year groups in a series of anonymous interviews about drugs. Limited to certain friendship groups, club nights and drugs, these testimonies paint a remarkably consistent picture of drug-taking among Cambridge students.

Many we spoke to agreed that the scene was highly compartmentalised, mostly restricted to club nights at venues like Fez and The Junction, and events like Turf all-nighters, Boomslang and ArcSoc.

A wide range of drugs are taken, including acid, cannabis, cocaine, crack cocaine, memphedrone, methamphetamine, ketamine, shrooms and valium, though every interview cited MDMA as the drug taken most frequently by students. MDMA is the chemical name for the main component of ecstasy, and is known to make users feel energised and stay awake for prolonged periods of time.

This feeling was cited as one of the reasons that drug-taking is such a limited scene in Cambridge. One respondent told us: “If it’s an all nighter, it means ‘take drugs’. No one is at Fez at five in the morning on alcohol, not a single person in there. Same with Boomslang at The Junction.”

Other clubs were dismissed for the same reason. Another said: “We also just have really shitty nightlife. Who wants to be fucked and then listen to the Lion King at Cindies?”

The lack of nights out with electronic as opposed to ‘cheesy’ music has seemingly created an exclusive group of habitual drug users, who “seek each other out on nights out… because, [they] don’t want to be the only person [taking drugs]”. As one student told us: “There’s a group of people who always go to Fez; they are the drug culture, I suppose.” Indeed, the scene appears so compartmentalised that one user said when you only attend such nights it “massively limits your social circle”.

Despite being concentrated on particular nights and events, however, use of MDMA is widespread. “I genuinely prefer the feeling I get from MDMA than the feeling I get from alcohol,” one second-year told us.

“I have so much more fun on drugs than alcohol and it’s actually terrifying because I try to persuade myself that I don’t, because... when you have that much fun... you don’t really look forward to [nights out] anymore unless there are gonna be drugs,” another student said.

Drinking is so embedded in Cambridge culture that drugs are a useful form of escapism “from the stressful monotony of Cambridge life”, according to some.

“You go to matriculation and you get pissed on your first night of Cambridge, and that’s how it goes.” Drinking alongside professors, college bars and drinking societies were also mentioned.

Bored of drinking, “people want to make the most of nights out where it’s not the usual crap stuff”, as one student put it. For some, this boredom has reached serious levels.

One regular user spoke of looking forward only to nights out that would centre around taking drugs, reaching the point where “instead of it being like ‘when’s the next time I’m gonna be with my friends going out and having fun?’ it’s like ‘when’s the next ArcSoc? When is the next Turf all-nighter? When’s the next Boomslang?’”

Drugs, however, still carry significant stigma in ways heavy drinking does not. “People assume that because you take drugs you’re trying hard to be something you’re not”, one respondent told us. “Most of my friends who are perfectly happy to get out-of-control drunk aren’t comfortable with the fact that I occasionally like to get high.”

“The conclusion jumped to is that you’re irresponsible or reckless if you take drugs”.

There is stigma not just among friends, however, but among users themselves, with many afraid of getting into trouble if they sought help when having a bad experience. Regarding their friends, one student told us: “They’ve been worried that they’re feeling ill, but they haven’t been able to tell anyone, like the bouncer.” Others spoke similarly: “There’ve been times that I’ve felt like I should tell someone something, but also been worried that they’d be really angry at me for telling if I get them into trouble”.

Yet respondents were quick to point out that they thought it difficult to develop a drug problem in Cambridge because of the workload and pressures. “You’re... watched here a lot more than at other unis,” one user said. “You have DoS meetings, and you wouldn’t turn up fucked to a DoS meeting.”

Do students here have drug problems, then? No, was the general answer. One student replied: “Ironically because it’s so hard to stay floating here… it’s almost hard to develop an actual problem, because a problem demands so much time and energy that you just don’t have to spare”.

Some even went as far as to say it is impossible to have a drug problem in Cambridge. “I don’t think it’s possible to do a Cambridge degree and have a drug problem because you’d just be way too highly-functioning an addict then to classify,” one habitual user said. As another put it, “I know many people in Cambridge who you would consider to be hardline ‘druggies’ based on how often they take substances, but they are still on top of their work, and content with themselves. I wouldn’t consider that a problem.” Others, however, were more mixed in their assessments.

In an interview, one person commented: “I think the nature of the Cambridge environment means that if you had a drug problem you’d be caught out quite quickly”.

However, they went on to detail how their own experiences of drugs had not always been positive; ‘coming down’ from a particularly heavy week of MDMA usage, they spoke of “crying in my room for two days... really depressed... I didn’t do any work.”

“My work that week was appalling,” they continued. “In my supervision, my supervisor just put the essay aside and was like, ‘I think it’s best if we just move on from this essay’.

“It’s kind of scary”.

A reluctance to define either themselves or their friends as having a ‘problem’ with drugs was a consistent theme among respondents. “I don’t know anyone with a specific drugs problem, but I definitely think some friends take too much,” one finalist observed. “Not everybody that loves drugs has a problem. There’s a distinction between appreciation and dependency,” another commented.

The ability to continue handing in work was repeatedly cited as evidence of drug taking not proving problematic in students’ lives. As one user put it: “I’d just drink if I didn’t have the drugs, so would be equally dead the next day anyway”. When asked whether drugs got in the way of academic responsibilities, another responded: “No, because I know my own limits. There have been a few times where it has started to affect my work, but I quickly realised and sorted it out.” Another described their drug habit as “distracting” from work, but not a serious problem (though one respondent did admit to giving a history presentation while on acid).

One finalist, however, expressed reservations about what constitutes a problem: “It’s really easy to normalise certain attitudes, in particular seeing someone’s love of drugs as ‘really fun’ as opposed to a cause for concern, and I feel this is only exacerbated in the university environment.”

Does this mean students are complacent? In selectively choosing club nights at venues such as Fez and The Junction to take MDMA, or apparently less frequently cocaine, multiple respondents spoke to Varsity of a feeling of “security”.

“Those nights now have a reputation, and so you go knowing that everyone will be [taking drugs]. There’s a kind of security in that”. Others evoked a similar “safety in numbers” mentality, exacerbated by the fact that “the bouncers turn a massive blind eye to everything”.

This ‘security in numbers’ seems to extend to the drugs people are taking, with many revealing that they know little about the substances involved. “There have been these ‘plus minus’ pills going around, I think from Berlin, which are great. They’re like MD but don’t make you sweat or give you a comedown,” said one user, though they were unable to say what chemical they contained.

When asked whether the chemicals in MDMA could have any impact on academic performance, one second-year told us: “I wish I put more thought into this and knew more about it… I hope they don’t.” Although one student was sceptical about pills “because of the dangerous substances that can be mixed in with them”, the general attitude appears to be complacency.

On the matter of known substances, however, attitudes were more mixed. The vast majority of respondents were firm that they would not try heroin. “Seen too many amigos drop dead from that shit,” as one student put it.

Views on ketamin were less uniform. “It’s not meant for human consumption,” one respondent told us. “It just means you can’t move… It’s a horse tranquiliser [laughs]. Why the fuck would you take it?” Another said they “don’t understand the appeal” of ketamin. “The only time I’ve ever taken it I’ve sat in an arm chair for four hours and literally couldn’t remember being there. I literally don’t know why people take it.”

Others, however, said they reserved ketamin for “quieter evenings”, while some cited the current “global drought” as the primary reason they didn’t take the drug at university. 

It is only a small group that take Class A drugs in Cambridge, and the majority of these users consume such drugs only a few times a term. However, there is a smaller and more isolated group which consumes far more frequently and that those casually involved in the Cambridge drugs scene are not aware of. One fresher claimed to take MDMA and acid five times a week in much of term, and a few older students spoke of smoking weed five or so times a week, though one evidently more casual user said: “The busy lifestyle in Cambridge means that you can’t get high every night, but once a week at minimum”.

So where are students getting the drugs from? Buying from fellow students is particularly common, not as dealers per se, but from someone who buys from dealers to distribute among a small group of friends. One second-year told us “I feel like very few people actually have a dealer’s number”.

Students from bigger cities such as London were repeatedly cited as a common source of this kind of drug sharing. One respondent quipped: “I’m from London, so obviously drugs are more readily available”, while one third year said that in her experience “students who deal drugs” are “mainly getting them from London”.

Why? “Just because the people who have lived in London probably already have a supply set up, and again they’re the ones introducing other people to [drug-taking] because they’re the ones who have been doing it for years,” one user observed.

In addition to sourcing drugs, respondents also linked drug consumption to students from bigger cities. “You’re more likely to get drug use with people who... come from London... because you’re just more exposed to it,” one said. “It’s also a wealth thing. A lot of rich kids do quite a lot of cocaine.”

Another second year said: “I get [drugs] when I go home (London) – it’s cheaper and my friends at home deal, so I get mates rates”. “I’m a girl and I’m not eager to go pick up alone on Parker’s Piece,” she continued.

As for sourcing drugs in Cambridge, we were told “the ease comes in waves”. One student even said they bought drugs from local teenagers, which “can make you feel a bit bad”.

For those without access to larger cities’ networks, Cambridge locals were frequently mentioned as a source, with Mill Road, Queens’ Backs and Parker’s Piece cited as choice locations for dealing.

Drug quality is apparently far lower in Cambridge than in cities such as London and Leeds, although prices are higher due to a lack of competition between dealers.

“We had a lovely dealer called Chris for a while,” one finalist told us. “We all had drugs delivered to us by him, but some of my friends had met different men going by the name of Chris, which made me feel like maybe ‘Chris’ was a brand rather than a single entity.”

Other sources named were mail from cities like Berlin, although it was not disclosed whether this was delivered to college addresses, and buying drugs through online black markets, such as the recently closed Silk Road.

Do students worry about getting caught and damaging their future prospects? One user commented on how their dealers were Cambridge locals, rather than students, because “I wouldn’t think that students are willing to take the risk of losing their place”.

Cocaine and MDMA are both Class A drugs, being in possession of which can result in up to seven years in prison and/or an unlimited fine. Trinity College’s White Book of “Regulations and General Information for Student Members of College” states: “Any member found to have supplied anyone with... [an illegal] drug, or to have knowingly assisted anyone to obtain illegal possession of such a drug, will be... liable to expulsion from the College.” The threat is reiterated in similar policies across colleges.

Only a couple of incidences of arrests were detailed in our responses, although wider impacts of drug usage were recognised. One respondent told us a friend, who “had got quite far through the application process”, had to drop out of the Civil Service Fast Stream because they were asked whether they had taken drugs in the past six months.

Generally, however, students tended not to link current drug usage with future career prospects. One user told us “no one really gets caught”, while a second-year law student said: “The parties I drop at are very student exclusive, so I’m never worried about being caught by a bouncer or police. It makes you complacent. I never think about how taking drugs could affect my career, just because the possibility of me being found in possession seems slim.” Some students who spent their summer doing “banking internships” and “spent it all on drugs” were also mentioned.

Are such students likely to stay part of the drug culture after Cambridge? “I’m only 19,” one second-year told us. “When I’m 25, I’m still going to want to be doing exciting things. I want to keep some stuff for the future. Because if you’re doing coke when you’re 19, what are you going to be doing when you’re 25? People get bored after a while.”

Reporting by Eleanor Deeley, Eleanor Hegarty, Tom Freeman and Talia Zybutz.