Incidence of Drug Abuse -Crystal Methamphetamine among Secondary School Students in Awka Educational Zone, Anambra State

Abstract

The study determines the incidence of drug abuse (crystal methamphetamine) among secondary school students in Awka Educational Zone in Anambra State. Three research questions and one null hypothesis guided the study. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. A sample of 660 out of 1,984 Senior Secondary School (SSS II) students in the 18 public secondary schools in Awka Educational Zone in Anambra State was used for the study using purposively sampling technique. An adapted instrument with reliability co-efficient of 0.78 was used for data collection. Frequency count and simple percentages were used to answer the research questions while chi-square was used for testing the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The study revealed that there is a significant relationship between category of school type and incidence of crystal methamphetamine use among students in Awka Educational Zone in Anambra State. The study concluded that there is a significant relationship between the incidence of crystal methamphetamine use and category of schools as students in mixed schools had more cases of crystal methamphetamine use than boys or girls’ schools. Among others, it was recommended that secondary schools should set up functional drug addiction counseling programmes under the authority of trained school guidance and counselors to ensure that students who are using crystal methamphetamine to access specialised interventions to discourage students from engaging in drug abuse.