Stay away from drugs, students urged
Students of Plus Two High School-Bushenyi and youths generally have been urged to desist from drug abuse if they are to be important in future.
The call was made by Bernard Ngoboka, director of Arukah House Uganda, a rehabilitation centre dealing with the rehabilitation of drug addicts. This was during a health talk delivered to students of Plus Two High School-Bushenyi on drugs and substance addictions at the school premises in Bushenyi-Ishaka Municipality yesterday.
He revealed that school going children especially those in urban schools have been mostly affected by these vices.
According to a 2021 report from Makerere University school of psychology, Shisha, Khat, Marijuana, Heroin, Cigarette, Cocaine and Alcohol are among the most abused drugs and substances by school going children.
Ngoboka said that the use of these drugs and substances starts in secondary schools and that learners carry these habits as they progress to higher levels of education.
Strict rules set by school authorities and families, peer pressure, family back ground are among key factors responsible for increased drug use among students.
Akampwera Arc Kwokukizire, the Deputy Headteacher in charge of Administration, Discipline and welfare, Plus Two High School-Bushenyi revealed that addiction to drugs is a common offence and acknowledged that students use various substances smuggled into schools using various tactics.
He further said that sometimes it is hard to identify these drugs since the manufacturers have also learnt to manufacture these drugs within food substances that students carry to schools.
Akampwera said that as a school, they have put measures to identify those students who are suspected to be drug and substance addicts so that they could be helped to overcome the life-threatening vice through providing specialised psychosocial support to the victims .
