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Prevalence And Patterns Of Psycho Active Substance Use Among Senior Secondary School Students
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The future of any community, society, state or nation is tied to the character of the adolescent in that particular place, area or locality. It is also said that “The youth are the leaders of tomorrowâ€. Therefore responsible youth in the socie ty indicates responsible and brighter future of that society and also the reverse is the case.
In our society people are known to have had problems that had made them to adopt various measures to cope with such problems and live successfully within the confines of societal normative values. While some people take solace in lawful ways others resort to unlawful and unhealthy measures such as the use of drugs or psychoactive substances to the extent of abusing them, hence resulting in addiction. According to Edum (2006) the adolescent in our society are not left out in this, as they are either influenced by peer group while others do so because of the easy availability of the abused substances, others also watch on television and films and some read in books and so try to experiment to experience the effects. The effects of specific psychoactive substance vary depending on their mechanism of action, the amount consumed and the history of the user among other factors.
An ugly fact that is with us in the recent time is road traffic accident related to psychoactive substance use as well as increased crime rate in Nigeria, though a number of measures are put in place to check this menace. This includes the establishment of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) through Degree 48 of 1989 and 33 of 1990. However, in spite of these measures people especially the adolescents continue to use psychoactive drugs illicitly with its attendant problems.
Kano state is the most populated state in Northern Nigeria (NPC, 2006). The use of psychoactive Substance in this state is the order of the day, evidence by increase in crimes of different nature, failure at examination, abandoning school and poor performance in all aspects of life etc.
Dala local government is the largest, most populated local government Area of Kano State. One myth about the youth and adolescents in Dala local government is drug and substance use evidently shown by increase in crime, abandoning and inconsistencies in school, as well as failure in examination. These reasons encouraged and motivated the desire to investigate the prevalence and pattern of psychoactive substance use among the senior government secondary school students of the largest local government area in the middle of Kano City, Dala Local Government Area of Kano State, Nigeria.
Statement of the Problem
Substance use is not a strange phenomenon; the global, regional and national dimension of it are documented. It is in recognition of the complexity of the problem that 26th June of every year has been declared as the International Day Against Abuse and illicit trafficking by United Nations. In its June, 2003 report, the United Nations Children and Education Fund (UNICEF) stated that the problem of HIV/AIDS is inextricably connected to a range of problems, among which is drug abuse among children and young people. Similarly, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) pointed out that drug abuse among “area boys†in Nigeria has been reported as the cau se of delinquent behaviours and crime.
The World Health Organization (WHO, 2010) believes that young people are more vulnerable to suffering physical, emotional and social harm from their own or other people’s drug use. It also identifies strong links between the high rate of drinking, violent sexual behaviour, traffic and other accidents and drug use. In relation to tobacco, World Health Organization also estimates that about 250 million children and adolescents who live in developing countries like Nigeria are likely to be killed by tobacco (Stephen, 2010).
The United Nations office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) partly attributes the prevalence of drug use in Nigeria to street hawking of drugs and pharmaceutical preparation. The prevalence rate of adolescent’s substance and drug abuse in our society poses a great concern to health care providers as some end up as addicts. This is quite substantial in Kano state. According to NDLEA (2010) reports, Kano State is the highest in terms of people arrested with the case of drug trafficking’ and suspected drug addicts (638 arrested suspects) followed by Katsina (411) and Rivers (347) etc.
According to NDLEA (2010) most of the people arrested in Kano state for drug addicts and trafficking are from Dala local government and neighboring communities and majority constitutes secondary school drop outs. Therefore based on the foregoing reasons, the researcher deemed it necessary to determine the prevalence and patterns of psychoactive substance use among the senior secondary school students in Dala LGA, Kano State Nigeria.
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]The study was designed to determine prevalence and patterns of Psychoactive Substance use among Senior Secondary School Students in Dala Local Government Area (LGA), Kano State Nigeria. The study adopted a cross sectional descriptive survey design. Simple random sampling procedure was used to select two Secondary Schools out of the ten Government Senior Secondary School in Dala LGA, of Kano State. Both Schools have a combined population of 2293 students made up 1202 boys and 1096 girls. The two ... Continue reading---
