Alcohol & Other Drugs

Our programs work to reduce harmful consequences of alcohol and other drug use. We work to support students and learners in achieving their personal and academic potential. Read on to learn about alcohol and other drug-related health concerns, educational initiatives, and environmental strategies.

Programs

Blue Jays in the Blue Zone

Alcohol Orientation is required for all first-year students and introduces new Blue Jays to the “Blue Zone”. This is the level of alcohol use where there are fewer negative aspects of alcohol use, considered a BAC between 0.000 and 0.055. Our programming is designed to help students who choose to drink to do so in the safest way possible and to support students who choose not to drink in their decision.

PEEPs

Health Promotion and Well-Being’s peer health educators, PEEPs, can collaborate to provide interactive health programs related to AOD issues for your enjoyment! These trained health educators will provide you or your group with an educational and entertaining program sure to be fun and memorable! Just contact us and we can work to create a program based on your needs.

Services

Motivational Interviewing (MI)

What is Motivational Interviewing?

MI is a one-session alcohol screening and discussion offered free to all Johns Hopkins students who want to explore their alcohol or marijuana use. Some students attend an MI session to fulfill a requirement as a result of an alcohol-related offense, while others participate because they would like to learn moderation strategies to reduce negative consequences. This judgment-free program assists students in examining their alcohol and/or marijuana use and helps students develop plans that are in line with their personal goals.

Who are the facilitators?

MI is currently implemented by professional staff in the Health Promotion & Well-Being Office (Health Educators, Assistant/Associate/Executive Director) and graduate-level interns. All facilitators are trained to respect the privacy of the students who attend.

What should students expect?

MI sessions last 50 minutes and are one-on-one conversations between the student and facilitator.

Sessions utilize personalized feedback on a student’s alcohol and marijuana use to discuss approaches that can help the student be healthy and successfully meet their goals.

For more information, email wellbeing@jhu.edu.

Confidentiality: All information within the MI session is kept private between the student and the facilitator. However, if the student indicates that they may harm themselves or others, or talks about an event reportable to The Clery Act, information may be disclosed as appropriate. The only information shared with the referral source is whether the student completed the program by the assigned date.

Sober Party Monitor Training

Students who want to become Sober Party Monitors must go through TIPS training. Student leaders requested that this be a requirement for any student organization hosting off-campus parties with alcohol. TIPS sessions are a chance for students to talk with other student leaders and learn skills regarding:

The goal of hosting events with alcohol
The roles and responsibilities of the Sober Party Monitor
The risks associated with alcohol and other drug use
How to promote safe social behaviors
Resources and support for your group
How to address potentially dangerous and questionable behavior among your guests, including over-consumption of alcohol and situations potentially involving sexual assault and safe ways to intervene

We ask that students who wish to become certified Sober Party Monitors sign up one to two weeks or more in advance of their planned event (when possible), as trainings fill up quickly, and you are not guaranteed a spot in a session even if your event is close to the training date. Each session has a limit of 35 participants.

Please note that first-year students are not allowed to serve as Sober Party Monitors.

You only need to complete TIPS training once during your time at Hopkins. Registration is required. Registration will close once capacity is reached after which you will be placed on a waiting list or asked to select another session. Also, if there are less than five people signed up we reserve the right to cancel that session.

Once you have registered, please plan to arrive at the training on time. If you arrive after the training starts, you will have to attend another session in order to be certified.

Health Promotion and Well-Being TIPS Policy

Only individuals who have gone through TIPS University training can serve as Sober Party Monitors.
It is up to each individual student to provide proof that they have taken the TIPS course and passed the exam. It is not the responsibility of Health Promotion and Well-Being or any other Johns Hopkins University department or employee to maintain a list of students who can serve as Sober Party Monitors.
TIPS trainings will ONLY be offered by Health Promotion and Well-Being in the first part of the semester. You can complete your training with other departments and offices on-campus that offer TIPS, which may occur at other points during the semester.
No more than five individuals from an organization are allowed to pre-register for the same TIPS training.
Students will receive information on the location of the training between 12 and 24 hours before the start of the training.
MISSED TRAININGS- By signing up for a training, students are committing to attending. In the event that a student signs up for a training and does not attend, their Student Account will be charged the cost of materials and they will be forbidden from serving as a sober party monitor for the rest of their time as a Hopkins student.
LATE ATTENDEES- Trainings begin promptly at the time listed. Late-comers are not accepted and will not be eligible to participate in the training. They must sign up for another training within three months. If they do not sign up for another training within three months or are late to the subsequent training, this will count as a missed training as outlined earlier in the policy.
CANCELLING YOUR SPOT IN A TRAINING- If you can no longer attend a training due to illness or another commitment, you MUST email jhuchew@jhu.edu 24 hours before training. If you respond to this email indicating that you can no longer attend the training, this would be treated as a missed training as outlined earlier in the policy.
WALK INS- If you do not pre-register for a training, you can walk-in to a TIPS session, based on availability. If you do not both pre-register AND receive an email from jhuchew@jhu.edu with the training location, there are NO guarantees that you will be able to participate in the training.
Health Promotion and Well-Being does not offer private trainings. If your organization is interested in hosting a private training, Health Promotion and Well-Being can connect you with trainers. NOTE- there is a fee of several hundred dollars to host a private training, for which your organization will be responsible.
Health Promotion and Well-Being reserve the right to cancel any TIPS training.
You cannot transfer your spot in a TIPS training to another person.

For more questions related to sober party monitor and TIPS training, email wellbeing@jhu.edu.

To request access to the virtual TIPS training, please complete the following form:

Other Resources

Johns Hopkins students have access to multiple resources on alcohol and other drugs. Check out our other pages about specific substances:

Resources

If you would like to learn more about your alcohol use, you can use eCHECKUP TO GO Alcohol. This is a free and anonymous online module to receive personalized feedback.
Mental Health Services at the Homewood Counseling Center (410-516-8278). Serves all in-person undergraduate and graduate students and trainees from Krieger (excluding AAP students), Whiting, School of Education, and Peabody. Beginning Fall 2023, in-person students at Carey Business School in Baltimore can also access Mental Health Services at the Homewood Counseling Center.
Mental Health Services-East Baltimore (410-955-1892). Serves graduate, medical, and professional students and trainees at the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the School of Medicine, and the School of Nursing.
Mental Health Services-Washington, DC (443-287-7000). Serves SAIS, Carey DC, AAP, and Engineering for Professionals students.
If you would like to learn more about your cannabis use, you can use eCHECKUP TO GO Cannabis. This is a free and anonymous online module to receive personalized feedback.
If you have taken too much cannabis and are having negative reactions, call or have someone call the Maryland Poison Center at 800-222-1222.

If you have any questions or concerns please contact Jay Blake at jblake23@jh.edu.

Laws and Policies

Choose to be safe and legal! Learn JHU’s policies and ordinances involving alcohol and other drugs, so you can stay out of trouble.
Hosting Off-Campus Parties: Guidelines for improving safety at your parties.
Medical Amnesty: Medical amnesty helps ensure that minors at medical risk as a result of alcohol intoxication will receive prompt and appropriate medical attention.

Information about Alcohol and Other Drugs

College Students and Alcohol: Check out the JHU Campus Well articles on alcohol and other drugs.
Alcohol and Sex: Stay safe, have fun, skip the regrets.
Alcohol Emergency: Learn the signs of an alcohol emergency and know what to do.
How Students Stay in the Blue: JHU students have lots of strategies for “Staying in the Blue.”
The Effects of Combining Alcohol with Other Drugs: Combining other drugs with alcohol can have unpredictable and unwanted consequences. This page will help you understand the dangers and take steps to prevent harm.
Problem Drinking: Any one of these consequences is reason enough to evaluate your relationship with alcohol.

Fact Sheets

Alcohol

Drugs

Prescription Drugs:

Handy Websites

Alcoholics Anonymous (AA)

Alcoholics Anonymous is a fellowship of men and women who share their experience, strength and hope with each other that they may solve their common problem and help others to recover from alcoholism. The only requirement for membership is a desire to stop drinking. There are no dues or fees for AA membership; we are self-supporting through our own contributions. AA is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization or institution; does not wish to engage in any controversy, neither endorses nor opposes any causes. Our primary purpose is to stay sober and help other alcoholics to achieve sobriety.

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse & Alcoholism (NIAAA)

NIAAA provides leadership in the national effort to reduce alcohol-related problems by:

Conducting and supporting research in a wide range of scientific areas including genetics, neuroscience, epidemiology, health risks and benefits of alcohol consumption, prevention, and treatment
Coordinating and collaborating with other research institutes and Federal Programs on alcohol-related issues
Collaborating with international, national, state, and local institutions, organizations, agencies, and programs engaged in alcohol-related work
Translating and disseminating research findings to health care providers, researchers, policymakers, and the public

Rethinking Drinking

Rethinking Drinking is for anyone who drinks. Rethinking Drinking offers valuable, research-based information.

Streetdrugs.org

Streetdrugs.org features information and links related to street drugs and drug abuse including links to published reports on drug use, a “drug index” listing all the drugs listed on the site, signs and symptoms of drug use, and directions for getting help.

Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD)

Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) provides students with the best prevention and intervention tools possible to deal with the issues of underage drinking, other drug use, impaired driving and other destructive decisions.

The Maryland Collaborative

The Maryland Collaborative to Reduce College Drinking and Related Problems brings together Maryland colleges to address the problem of excessive drinking and its consequences on their campuses and in their communities. College student drinking problems exact enormous social and economic costs for families, friends, and the community-at-large, including assaults, injuries, drunk driving, alcohol abuse and dependency, and death.