“Kelly”‘s first exposure to drugs piqued her curiosity. Like many GW freshmen, she wasn’t introduced to hard drugs until she arrived at Thurston Hall last year.

A few weeks into her first year of college, Kelly started hanging out with upperclassmen who acquainted her with the side of GW that isn’t in the brochures.

“(A friend and I) started chilling at this guy’s apartment close to campus,” Kelly said. “By second semester, I didn’t care about my grades or even about how I looked.”

College presents students an entire world of new experiences. Eighteen-year-olds, fresh out of high school and free from the restrictions of living at home, face life on a different level.

For many GW students, the new situations are positive: staying up all night to cram for an exam, going to clubs and parties, meeting diverse and interesting people, and doing things they hope their parents never find out about.

But the freedom has a darker side.

It’s every parent’s nightmare – their son or daughter goes off to college and starts using drugs.

For most students, drugs are the least of their worries. More important thoughts fill their minds – grades, jobs, friends, this week’s episode of “Ally McBeal.”

But for some college students, such as Kelly, a preoccupation with drugs replaces everything.

Kelly remembers the second time she went to a new friend’s apartment.

“Everyone was tripping,” said Kelly, a sociology major who was 18 at the time. “They were having so much fun, but we didn’t take any hits.”

The next weekend, they decided to try acid.

“Getting trashed on the weekend, and even during the week, was my main concern,” Kelly said.

The expensive nature of her newfound habit eventually led her to shoplifting, but Kelly decided to cut back after she got caught.

“Now I only drink, and smoke pot, which is much cheaper,” she said.

It might be surprising to many faculty, staff, and students, but situations like Kelly’s happen at GW and on other campuses across the nation.

And they don’t occur only in off-campus housing. They happen right in the residence halls.

Albert, a senior in the GW business school, first snorted cocaine in Fulbright Hall, which was then called Everglades. Although he doesn’t use the drug on a regular basis anymore, Albert recalls the days during his sophomore and junior years when his nose ran constantly and he weighed 15 pounds less than he does today.

“I had seen drugs in high school, but I didn’t try them because I lived with my parents and didn’t want them to ever find out,” Albert said.

“But when I was on my own at GW for a year, I wasn’t too hesitant to try it out,” said Albert, who went to high school in Cleveland.

“I was at a friend’s dorm room, and they had brought back an eightball of cocaine from New York City the weekend before when they went clubbing,” he said. “The five of us got so high and stayed up all night.

“We went to the Fifth Column (now the Bank) and then walked all around the city. I have to admit it was a fun night, and before I knew, it became a regular thing to do on the weekends,” Albert said.

Despite decreases in the costs of hard drugs, Albert said he had to cut back his use because the habit cost too much money.

The price of crack is dropping in most areas, according to a National Drug Control Policy report “Pulse Check: National Trends in Drug Abuse,” published in 1997 by Barry McCaffrey, director of the department.

The report describes the use and distribution of illicit drugs in various areas of the country and is based on conversations with drug researchers, law enforcement officials and substance abuse treatment providers nationwide.

Among other findings, the report claims that pieces or “rocks” of cocaine that sold for $10-$20 a few years ago may now sell for as little as $3-$5. In some areas, “shavings” or small crumbling pieces of crack, are available for even lower prices.

However, the lower prices appear to have had little impact on what the NDCP says is a continued decline in the popularity of cocaine.

The report says cocaine in powdered form is reappearing in some areas of Baltimore and Washington after a long period of low availability, with renewed interest among middle-class users.

The use of “club drugs” continues in many areas, as well – suburban New York and Maryland; Miami; Austin, Texas; Baltimore; Cleveland and New York City, according to the report.

“Club drugs” are used by young, middle-class users who are into the “rave” or nightclub scene. The category includes: prescription drugs, hallucinogens, and in some areas, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine.

“(The cost) is basically why I only do it on special occasions now,” Albert said.

“But you’d be surprised how many kids here, whose parents give them a bunch of money, use coke,” he said.

“These kids, especially a lot of the foreign students who have more money than they know what to do with, start using coke to fit in,” Albert said. “A lot of GW students fit that profile, I think.”

Officials at the University Substance Abuse Center refused to comment whether GW has a drug problem.

But many students are aware of the existence of drugs at GW and have heard the anecdotal evidence.

“I know it’s easy to get, but I don’t really think there is really a drug problem at GW,” said Abba Sarhan, a junior pre-med student. “It seems so common to me.”