• Prevalence And Patterns Of Phycho Active Substance Use Among Secondary School Students

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    • 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 Schools sample
      were Government Secondary School Kurna Asabe for boys and Government Senior
      Secondary School Kuka bulukiya for girls. The instrument for Data collection was a WHO
      Youth Drug Survey (WHOYDSQ) adapted questionnaire. The reliability of the instrument
      was established using a test re-test and computed using Pearson Moment Correlation.
      Coefficient of 0.82 was obtained. Data generated was subjected to descriptive statistics and
      analysed using Chi-square. The prevalence of psychoactive substance use among
      Government Senior Secondary School in Dala LGA, of Kano State shows that majority
      (91.1%) of the respondents have been using psychoactive substances. The commonest
      substances used were kola nut (87.4%), tobacco (15%) and cannabis (5.5%). more than half
      of the users of each of the substances take it occasionally, using them on one to five days in a
      month except kolanut taken on twenty or more days in a month. They include male (52.9%),
      female (47.1%). Majority (68.1%) of the respondents were between 18-20 years. Most of the
      respondents who use psychoactive substances were introduced by their friends (60.6%),
      family (27.6%) and by nobody (5.7%). Most (27.9%) first use kolanut at the age less than 10
      years, alcoholic beverages at the age of 11-12years (25.6%) while others like tobacco,
      cannabis at 19-and above years (38.3%). Major reasons for using psychoactive substance
      include to be sociable (25.4%) and for enjoyment (24.4%). There was significant difference
      (p < 0.05) between Males and females in psychoactive substance use. The pattern of use is
      dependent on the type of psychoactive substances (p < 0.05). Also the psychoactive
      substances use based on lifetime use is dependent on the age at first use (p < 0.05). In
      conclusion the prevalence of substance abuse among Senior Secondary School students is
      high as such Government, Parents and Teachers needs to joint hands and address the
      problems.
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    • CHAPTER ONE - [ Total Page(s): 3 ]The youths in Nigeria like many countries of the world are increasingly developing addictionto psychoactive substances. The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA, 2011)collected drugs use and abuse data from schools, records of patients admitted at mental healthinstitutions for drug problems and interview of persons arrested for drug offences. The resultshowed that youths constitute the high risk group for drug trafficking and abuse. Friends andschool mates account for about 90% of the sou ... Continue reading---