Abstract

The prevalence of substance abuse among adolescents in our schools and invariably, in our society has the potential of destroying the future working population. It has also brought untold hardship to the majority of the populace and increased the cost of maintaining peace and tranquility by the government. The rate at which our moral values are being eroded due to parental neglect and nonchalant attitude has led most of our adolescents to put their confidence among the peer groups who introduced them to a substance. Some of these substances, after consumption led to, emotional and psychological imbalance and most times led to psychosis. Counselling is seen as a veritable tool to curb this menace of social adjustment among adolescent students. Proper and effective counselling should not only be limited to schools, it should be embraced by society at large. It was recommended that the government at various levels should produce recreation facilities in all schools to engage these adolescents even after school hours, to discourage them from substance abuse. It was also concluded that substance abuse's evil can indirectly affect national development.