ABSTRACT
This research was aimed at investigating the incidence of drugs abuse among secondary school students in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State the findings of the research were based on the effect of drugs, reasons for drugs abuse, how these drugs are gotten, the students that abuse it more and the commonly abused drugs secondary school students randomly chosen, drawn from four mixed senior secondary school.
The study adopted the descriptive survey research design. The population of this study consisted of nine thousand, five hundred and eighty-four (9,584) students of the fourteen public senior secondary schools in Oredo Local Government Area of Edo State. The sample size of this study was three hundred (300) students (SSS1 – SSS3) drawn from the population (that is 75 students from each of the school). In selecting the schools and students the systematic random sample technique was used. Research instrument in form of questionnaire was designed and validated by the researcher’s supervisor and two other experts, which was used to collect data from the students for the purpose of this study. The simple percentage method of analysis was used to analyze the data collected.
Findings show that alcohol and Indian hemp are the drugs commonly abused the investigation also show that the drugs have effect on the abusers such lack of sleep, restlessness, hyper-activity of the muscle and lack of self-control. The abuse of drugs was also found to be more prevalent among male students than female students; ease tension and as an act of curiosity to know its effect. Solutions to the problem includes government taking action against drug abusers, the provision of counselling services to school and the imposition of some level of restriction to the production of these drugs. And also, the mass media should mount heavy campaign against drug abuse and wining should not be much emphasized in secondary school.
