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Prevalence And Patterns Of Phycho Active Substance Use Among Secondary School Students
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Drug abuse is viewed by different authorities in various forms. Neeraja (2011) defined
substance abuse as the dependence on a drug or other chemical substances leading to the
effect that are detrimental to the individual’s physical and mental health or the welfare of
others. According to Smelzer, Bare, Hinkle, and Cheever (2008) substance abuse is a
maladaptive pattern of drug use that causes physical and emotional harm with the potential
for disruption of daily life. From these definitions, it can be deduced that substance abuse is
the misuse of one or more drugs which could be prescribed by a health practitioner with the
intention to alter the way one feels, thinks or behaves and it is associated with consequences
which include physical and emotional harm to the person.
The African Symposium (2010) viewed substance abuse as the improper use or application of
drugs by a person without proper knowledge of the drugs and without due prescription from a
qualified medical practitioner. This definition focuses on psychoactive drugs. All drugs can
be abused to an extent that it turns into addiction when the drug user is unable to stop the use
of the drugs despite the harmful effects on the user’s social, personal and economic lives. The
problem of substance abuse is so grave that though it was originally conceived as the problem
of a ‘select few’, it has extended beyond the usual characteristics of abusers being males,
adults and urban based people, to now include females, youngsters and rural dwellers (Rocha,
2009). These abusers erroneously believe that drugs enhance their performance, put them in
good mood etc. The accompanying problems of this act constitute a major threat to the wellbeing
of the society (Ajala, 2009).
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ABSRACT - [ Total Page(s): 1 ]The study was designed to determine prevalence and patterns of Psychoactive Substance useamong Senior Secondary School Students in Dala Local Government Area (LGA), KanoState Nigeria. The study adopted a cross sectional descriptive survey design. Simple randomsampling procedure was used to select two Secondary Schools out of the ten GovernmentSenior Secondary School in Dala LGA, of Kano State. Both Schools have a combinedpopulation of 2293 students made up 1202 boys and 1096 girls. The two Schoo ... Continue reading---
