<http://schema.org/articleBody>
"UC Santa Cruz police are witnessing a staggering increase in drug use on campus with more students moving to harder drugs.\"I've been in law enforcement for 23 years, and I have not seen (drugs) affect our students like that,\" UC Santa Cruz Police Chief Nader Oweis said.Four fatal drug overdoses by students, two major ecstasy drug-selling busts and a double fatal accident on Highway 1, in which a UC Santa Cruz student is accused of driving high, happened in the last year and a half.School administrators and police are alarmed by the trend and trying to bring awareness to the growing problem.Oweis said that Adderall, Xanax, ecstasy, marijuana and alcohol are the most prevalent drugs. He said in many of the overdose cases, students are mixing these drugs into what they call \"cocktails.\"Oweis and his officers are seeing deadly consequences from the drug use and that's why he is speaking out.The school wants students to watch out for friends and make them aware of the dangers of these prescription drugs. Police are sending out messages that urge students to call police if their friends need help.According to Oweis, in April 2015, a 21-year-old woman died in her dorm room. She ate very high levels of THC weed edibles, aspirated in her sleep and suffocated to death.In another instance, Oweis said that in June 2015, a 21-year-old man died in the hospital after taking a lot of drugs on campus. He had shot up heroin and prescription drugs.Oweis urged students to call for help if a student is overdosing or feeling very sick.\"Individuals saw that they were in severe need of help. There was fear of calling the police. That led to delays in calling us. By then it was too late,\" Oweis said.When KSBW spoke with students on campus, many of them were unaware of the growing drug trend.\"I think its mainly marijuana that is prevalent on campus, so I haven't really known much about harder drugs,\" UCSC student Haley Sutton said.Although some students think marijuana is harmless, police say they are seeing stronger pot than ever before and it's leading to hallucinations, disorientation, dehydration and uncontrollable vomiting.Oweis said that in addition to prescription drugs they are also seeing a new trend that students are using more hard core drugs like heroin and cocaine.\"It's hard to say why there's an increase, but for whatever reason, we've been seeing it,\" UC Santa Cruz Public Information Officer Scott Hernandez-Jason said."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.ksbw.com/article/police-fatal-overdoses-show-drug-abuse-increasing-at-uc-santa-cruz/1297113>