New CASA* Report to Reveal Substance Abuse Up at America’s Colleges and Universities

WASHINGTON, DC -- Joseph A. Califano, Jr., chairman and president of The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University and former U.S. Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, will release the findings from CASA’s new report, “Wasting the Best and the Brightest: Substance Abuse at America’s Colleges and Universities” on Thursday, March 15, at 10:00 a.m. at the Kaiser Family Foundation building, 1330 G Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. A video statement from Reverend Edward A. Malloy, CSC, Chair, The CASA Commission on Substance Abuse at Colleges and Universities II, and President Emeritus, University of Notre Dame will be shown.

The CASA report is the result of four years work on alcohol, prescription and illegal drug abuse and smoking among America’s full-time college students, including new surveys of students and university administrators. The most extensive examination of substance abuse on America’s campuses ever undertaken, it reveals increased intensity in binge drinking and prescription and illegal drug abuse among college students and a failure of administrators, trustees, professors and parents to curb this conduct.

The report will chronicle the devastating consequences, including student deaths and injuries from alcohol abuse, accidents, sexual assaults, date rape, property damage, and academic failures.

MEDIA COVERAGE INVITED. Call Lauren Duran (212-841-5260) or Sulaiman Beg (212-841-5213) to confirm attendance.

WHAT: Release of CASA’s "Wasting the Best and the Brightest: Substance
Abuse at America’s Colleges and Universities"

WHO: Joseph A. Califano, Jr., CASA Chairman and Reverend
Edward A. Malloy, CSC, Chair, of The CASA Commission on
Substance Abuse at Colleges and Universities II.

WHERE: The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation Building,
The Barbara Jordan Conference Center, 2nd Floor,
1330 G Street, NW, Washington, D.C.

WHEN: Thursday, March 15, 2007, 10:00 AM
*The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University is neither affiliated with, nor sponsored by, the National Court Appointed Special Advocate Association (also known as “CASA”) or any of its member organizations, or any other organizations with the name of “CASA.”