EAST LANSING, Mich.—Michigan State University arrested 261 people for drugs in 2012, a 158 percent increase from two years earlier, the East Lansing school says.
The university had more drug arrests than any state school in 2012, the last year for which figures are available, the Detroit Free Press reported Sunday. It said Michigan State had 31 percent more drug arrests than the 199 arrests at the University of Michigan that year.
Michigan State reported 101 drug arrests in 2010.
According to the Michigan State University student health self-assessment in spring 2012, 18.9 percent of students reported they used marijuana in the previous month and 2.5 percent said they used amphetamines in that time.
Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III said he believes that Michigan’s medical marijuana law has increased student drug use.
“It’s got people thinking (smoking marijuana) is just OK,” he said.
Campus police said they aren’t increasing drug enforcement and said most of the cases involve marijuana. Students are increasingly willing to report the use of marijuana to police, police spokeswoman Florene McGlothian-Taylor said.
