The Impact of Drug Abuse on Adolescents, A Case of Nyabira, Zvimba West

The purpose of this research was to explore the effects of substance/drug use or abuse by adolescents at Nyabira high density suburb. Residents are left gaping at the amount of maladaptive behaviour by adolescents as some of them finally engage in stealing and even take to streets within the suburb anticipating to live through begging and handouts, from well-wishers. The main objective was to establish the most abused drugs/substance and the study was meant to benefit parents and drug abusers to a larger extent. The related relevant literature was obtained from journals, textbooks and interactions as well as articles from various researchers. The gap was to identify the environmental factors which influenced adolescents to engage in drug abuse especially from Nyabira. The population from which the sample was drawn consisted of adolescents, police officers and psychologists. A qualitative research approach was utilised with an interview guide and observation as data collection instruments. Judgemental sampling technique was applied because of the scarcity of qualified psychologists. The research results were that adolescents were engaging in drug abuse and the conclusions arrived at that depression, hallucinations, suicidal tendencies and addiction are some of the effects of drug abuse. The researcher recommended that government make advocacy campaigns and apply stringent rules to deal with drug abuse. Further research was on the application of the quantitative approach to enable the generalisation of the results across all the adolescents.