EFFECT OF DRUG ABUSE ON MORAL BEHAVIOUR OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN ILORINSOUTH LGA, KWARA STATE

Sales of Alcohol, Marijuana, Indian hemp and other dangerous herbs that can easily be purchased from unregistered drug vendors in the Community, especially in school surroundings encourage drug abuse. Similarly, failure of Government to strictly enforce its existing laws against drug abuse through its regulatory agencies is also a contributory factor to youths getting involved in drug abuse specifically, Secondary School students who will be our future leaders. Thus, this study examined the effect of drug abuse on moral behaviour of Secondary School students in Ilorin-South Local Government Area of Kwara State. The simple random sampling technique was adopted to select 30 teachers and 150 students from the five selected public Secondary Schools in the Local Government Area as sample. The instrument used was the questionnaire while analysis of variance was employed to test the three hypotheses generated in this study. The findings revealed that there was significant relationship between the drug abuse and students’ riot, bullying of fellow students and students’ disobeying school authorities in Secondary Schools. Based on the findings, it is recommended that Government should prevent the cultivation or sales of Indian hemp, other dangerous herbs that encourage drug abuse and strictly enforce its existing laws against drug abuse through its regulatory agencies. Also, parents and guardians should endeavor to monitor their children so that they do not engage in drug abuse. Counselling education should be introduced in schools to prevent those who have already engaged in the act.