Drug use among secondary school students in Zimbabwe

A survey of drug use carried out in Zimbabwe in 1990/91 involved 2783 students from five different school categories in two provinces. Results show existence of use and experimenting, although prevalence is generally lower than corresponding European figures. Alcohol and tobacco is more common among urban than rural students and more common among private than public school students. Cannabis prevalence varies less, although high density urban school students report higher figures than others. Prevalence of inhalants is highest at private schools. Use of alcohol, tobacco and cannabis increases with age for both sexes, contrary to inhalants which shows a decreasing tendency for females and minimal variations across age-groups for males. Scale analysis for urban students produced results similar to European studies, demonstrating a stage pattern beginning with alcohol and tobacco, followed by cannabis or inhalants. The same pattern could not be demonstrated among rural students. It is argued that drug use among urban students is more developed not only quantitatively but also in that the use of different drugs is systematically strongly intercorrelated. Pattern variations between school-types may also reflect a stronger external or western influence on urban than rural adolescent drug use behaviour.