Effect of Drug Abuse among Youths in Ozuaha Community in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State

This is the report of a study which investigated the effect of drug abuse on ozuaha youths in ozuaha community in Ikwerre Local Government Area, Rivers state. Three questions and three null hypotheses were formulated. The population of the study consisted of ozuaha youths from the age of 15years to 30years that abuse drug. The total population was 3,200 youths from where a sample size of 360 youths was gotten using taro yamame’s formular. This sample size was selected from the population by random sampling technique. A descriptive survey design method was adopted and questionnaire was used for data collection. The instrument was validated by the research supervisor and the reliability of the instrument was tested using Pearson Production Movement Correlation (PPMC) test method which gave a coefficient (r) of 0.89. The research questions were answered with percentage, mean and standard deviation while the hypotheses were tested at 0.05 (5%) significant level using z-test statistical tool. The major findings were: (1) drug abuse has adverse effect on health; such as psychiatric illnesses and mental disorders. (2) drug abuse has adverse effects on educational performance; such as poor academic performance, lateness to school, absenteeism and truancy and even dropping-out of school. (3) drug abuse has adverse effect on social behaviour; such as aggression, withdrawal from peers, loss of interest in hobbies, sudden mood swing, drug addiction (4) drug abuse can lead to increase in crime wave; such as, increase n rapping rate, armed robbery, kidnapping, stealing and outright-killing or murder. The implications of the findings were highlighted and appropriate recommendations made.