Alcohol, cigarettes most abused drugs in schools

Drug abuse has become a part of everyday life for hundreds of children, in Uganda's schools today, according to the latest study.

Many start as young as 11. By the age of 25, eight in 10 students say they have ever taken some drugs-including alcohol, Kuber, cigarettes, Shisha, marijuana and Khart, according to a study by the National Drug Authority (NDA).

Data from the survey shows that alcohol tops the list of drugs abused by students at 77.7 percent, followed by Kuber at 34 percent, cigarettes (29.5) shisha (21.4), Marijuana (17.9), Kaht (17.0), Murah (8.0), Cocaine (6.3), and then Murah and Miraj.

The study was done by NDA assisted by Confidence Asiimwe and Dr. Leon Matagi in June 2013.

The figures mean that across the country probably 5.5m under 25 years of age, have at least abused some drugs in their life time.

According to the research, the percentage of students taking drugs is significantly higher in boarding schools 25% as compared to day schools at 15%. More so, the percentage of students taking drugs is higher in private 31% as compared to Government schools.

"The percentage of students taking drugs increases significantly with class, S2 (14%), S3 (19%), S4 (21%), S5 (26%) and S6 (33%).

Students get access to drugs through friends, fellow students and kiosks near schools which the National Drug Officials said ought to be demolished.

"Students abuse those drugs in places where they are least supervised including on their way home, during weekends while at school, during school trips and school competitions," said Confidence Asiimwe, a researcher at NDA.

The nationwide survey was done among 525 students, 28 teachers and 31 community members. Students were selected from five schools using a stratified random sampling; and teachers were selected using a purposive sampling. Meanwhile, community members were got under the convenient sampling from local councils neighbouring the five schools.   

Much as 78% of the students were reported to have never used drugs, it still raises an issue for the five million students.

Access to drugs

According to students, the most important facilitating factor to drug abuse is peer pressure, recorded at 62%, followed by lack of strict school rules and regulations (14%), family background (13%) and poor security around the school (11%).

"To a smaller extent, the location of the school (near drug suppliers), carelessness of parents, carelessness of teachers (not being strict) and lack of proper checking as students report to school are some of the causes.

Others are the availability of money by students, adolescence stage pushing them to take drugs and exposure of students to new environments are some of the other reasons stated in the study.

Idleness in schools, lack of supervision of students, drugs being cheap and failure by schools to enforce discipline are the other reason cited for drug abuse in schools.

Why students take drugs?

According to the research, some students say that abuse drugs to boots concentration on their books, to do away with shyness or fear and to forget problems related with poor performance. But researchers refute these assumptions, as baseless, since there is no concrete evidence that drugs boost concentration or reduce shyness.

"Most of the reasons students gave were not genuine; like ignorance of the outcome of using drugs, bad examples from teachers, easy recognition by fellow students, pressure exposed to students and persuasive advertising on TVs and radios," argues the research.

 Dangers of drugs

Confidence Asiimwe, a co-author of the research says that drug abuse leads to brain damage and can lead to dropping out from school.

Asiimwe adds that, "From the survey we found out that most effects are diseases (46%), brain damage (30%) school dropouts (29%), decline in academic performance (27%) and a high level of indiscipline (18%)."

"Most students are not aware that too much alcohol can lead to decline in academic performance, high levels of indiscipline, and immoral acts in schools (17%) and can also lead to death," she explains.