Drugs of Abuse in Bangladesh: knowledge and perception of students from Private Universities

Abstract

Drug abuse is an alarming problem in the world. Drug abuse directly influences the economic and social aspects of a country. The objectives of this study are to know the knowledge and perception about drugs of abuse from students of private universities in Dhaka city. Private University students were chosen due to fact that they represent part of the youth of Bangladesh. Data were collected from the students by a questionnaire structure form. Questionnaire form consisted mainly two points, knowledge about drugs of abuse and perception about drugs abuse. The numbers of total participants were 344 students. The samples consisted of noth undergraduate (83%) and graduate (17%) students. Most of the participants were male (82%). Again most of the participants were Muslim (89%). About 23% of the participants were using drugs of abuse. Among them 81 % are male and 19% are female. Almost all students (95%) have knowledge about drug of abuse including its hannful effect. About 90% students think that drugs of abuse are very common in Bangladesh. The results show that most of the drug abusers use cough syrup (65%), ganja (60%), alcohol (50%), yaba (31 %), and tranquilizers (29%). Most of the students (93%) think that drug abuse should be controlled in Bangladesh. Despite some limitations this study gives a gross idea about the level of knowledge and perception towards drugs of abuse from students from private universities. The government of Bangladesh should make some initiative to increase the knowledge of drugs of abuse otherwise they will turn into potential user drugs of abuse.