of alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, and other illicit drugs (2) alcohol, tobacco, cannabis users; and (3) low substance users, with overall low levels of use, with alcohol use being the most common. Interestingly, very few participants transitioned in their substance use class across the first year of college. This suggests that college students largely maintain the patterns of substance use with which they enter college. This finding is consistent with a previous study that reported pre-college heavy drinking to be the strongest predictor of heavy drinking in the first semester (Sher and Rutledge, 2007). These studies suggest that high-risk users have previously established substance use patterns prior to college, a finding that has important implications for early intervention efforts: we know who is most at risk from the time they step onto our campus. This underscores the importance of implementing effective, empirically supported prevention efforts that go beyond “one-size-fits-all.”
