In 1952, a Varsity investigation into student drug use revealed that 20 students in the university regularly smoked “hashish”. This issue, a series of interviews with student drug users around Cambridge reveals a very different picture.

The student press periodically produces ‘shocking’ statistics detailing the drug habits of Cambridge students. A 2008 investigation found traces of cocaine in eight colleges. A 2012 study said 63 per cent of students had taken illegal drugs.

Presenting such numbers as minor revelations each time they surface continues to mask the one, unsurprising truth: students take drugs. They take drugs during term, they plan their work around it, and they buy these drugs from home, friends and dealers.

So is this worth a front page? As the rest of Cambridge floats around in an alcoholic haze, drugs continue to be taboo. An extensive series of interviews conducted by Varsity over the past few weeks creates an image of students too worried to seek help when they think something has gone wrong, often unsure of the substances they are taking and unwilling to share their experiences with non drug-using friends. As such, the Cambridge drugs scene is insular, compartmentalised and at times worryingly complacent.

Most of all, however, our interviews revealed a significant ambiguity surrounding that highly loaded term – ‘drug problem’. When does regular drug use become ‘problematic’? What areas of one’s life does it have to affect to be a ‘problem’? And, a question asked by a near majority of those surveyed, is it even possible for Cambridge students to have a drug problem?

Media portrayals of drugs consistently draw a clear line around those with ‘problems’: they are dependent, obsessed and can be recognised as drug addicts as soon as they enter a room.

In Cambridge, however, the majority of drug users we spoke to continue to hand in work, keep up with deadlines and even perform relatively well academically. Do they have a problem?

Shock-tactics and taboo are unhelpful. In Varsity’s pages alone, students in Cambridge have been seen to be using drugs since 1952. Some are and will go on to be perfectly fine. Some, however, may not. What has emerged is that within Cambridge’s insular drugs scene, what constitutes a ‘problem’ is not always clear. There should be recourse to which students can turn to help them figure this out.

Those interviewed for this study have been fun, intelligent and interesting members of this university. What this newspaper hesitates to say they have been, is criminals – treating them as such adds yet another layer of secrecy and misconception to an issue that more than ever needs some transparency.