Cannabis and Amphetamine Use among School-Going Adolescents in Sub-Saharan Africa: a Multi-Country Analysis of Prevalence and Associated Factors.

Global evidence indicates that early onset of illicit substance use among adolescents and emerging adults is associated with negative mental-health related-outcomes that can persist into adulthood. However, the lack of quality regional data on adolescent illicit substance use and its determinants remains a common barrier to evidence-based policy-making and the development of school-based interventions in Africa. The purpose of our study was to estimate the prevalence and describe the correlates of cannabis and amphetamine use among school-going adolescents in eight sub-Saharan African countries (SSA) – Benin, Ghana, Liberia, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Seychelles, and Tanzania. We analysed 15,553 school-going adolescents that participated in the Global School-based Student Health Survey. A two-stage sampling approach was used to generate a nationally representative sample of school children (grades 7–12) in each of these countries. Students responded to a self-administered structured questionnaire that contained information on sociodemographic factors, family involvement factors, mental health factors, school environment factors and past-month cannabis and life-time amphetamine use. The overall prevalence estimates of past-month cannabis use and lifetime amphetamine use among school-going adolescents in the eight SSA countries was 4.39