Perceptions of Ghanaian Students about the Influence of Drug Use on Academic Performance

Abstract

Drug use among adolescents have shown to have significant influence on their health conditions and it has implications on adolescent's physical, cognitive and intellectual developments. These effects result from the devastating problems continued use of drugs have on consumers. Statistics from the Narcotics Control Board in Ghana shows that more than 35,000 adolescents in Ghana use various kinds of drugs. It is worthy of note that most of these adolescents are students of various Senior High Schools in Ghana. Findings from other parts of the world have shown that continued use of drugs causes poor academic performance. However, findings about this phenomenon is sparse in Ghana and very little has been done to address the issue. As a result of this, the study sought to understand Ghanaian student's views on the influence of drug use on academic performance. Out of the 90 respondents, 88.89% agreed that drug use negatively affected performance but 8.89% disagreed. Most students indicated that drugs keep students away from class, it has negative health implications, it causes students to lose concentration in class and it makes students disrespectful to their teachers. According to the students, these factors culminated into their reduction in academic performance. Also, the students held the view that peer pressure mostly influenced drug use, followed by advertisement and the death of a parent. The study concludes by recommending to policy makers in Ghana to pass policies in the country to prevent the use of drugs among students. Finally, the study suggests that national studies related to the topic under investigation should be conducted in order to provide a more generalisable knowledge.