Agensi antidadah kebangsaan kementerian dalam negeri

House Location
The finding for this variable is quite surprising and did not support the
hypothesis. It was found that the majority of the drug abuse offenders
lived at residential parks or “Taman Perumahan” (58.14%), followed by
other dwellings such as flats (16.28%), squatters (11.63%), and villages
(4.65%). This suggests that the house location itself does not determine
the students' involvement in drug abuse. It is the quality of the
neighborhood that makes a difference.
The lifestyle of the city folks could be the explanation for this
finding. In the city, people mainly live in terrace houses or flats. Most
areas in the city have been developed into proper housing areas. The
“Taman Perumahan” is mushrooming all over the city. Very few
people live in other types of accommodation. Thus, the high
percentage could be due to the high probability of people staying at
“Taman Perumahan”. Hence, house location could also be the main
predictor for the students' involvement in drug abuse. However, one
can still explain the findings from the peer socialization perspective.
One of the main reasons why students are involved in drug abuse is
peer influence. Compared to other types of housing location, “Taman
Perumahan” is the most common place for students to socialize.
Hence, there is a high tendency for adolescent residents to meet
deviant peer groups and to be involved in drug abuse. Overall, the
findings indicated that it is the accessibility to peer socialization that
predicts students' involvement in drug abuse rather than the location
of the house itself.

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Home Environment
This is another surprising finding revealed by the data. Contrary to the
earlier hypothesis, it was found that most drug abuse offenders
reported that they evaluated their home environment as good (53.49%)
and satisfactory (23.26%). This means that most of them are satisfied
with their living conditions. Hence, it strengthens the earlier contention
that most students commit drug abuse not only because of the
environmental factors but due to their personal traits too.
In addition to the above findings, it was also reported that the
reasons given by these students to account for their involvement in
drug abuse were consistent with the reasons given by previous studies.
The characteristics of the self such as impulsiveness, curiosity, and the
desire for sensation, serve as the roots of delinquency (Papalia & Olds,
1998). The characteristic of the environment refers to peer pressure or
to escape from overwhelming problems, and thereby endanger their
present and future physical and psychological health. Of course, these
characteristics do not necessarily cause drug abuse, but they are fairly
reliable predictors of it. It can be deduced that when there are more
risk factors present; the probability of an adolescent or a young adult
to abuse drug becomes greater.
Surprisingly, two participants reported that their family was the
reason why they were involved in drugs: family conflict (after a quarrel
between the participant and his father) and family history of drug
problems (the participant's brother was a drug addict). This finding is
consistent with Hawkins et al. (1992) who identified four family
characteristics that influence the likelihood of adolescent drug use: (a)
low levels of bonding with the family; (b) poor and inconsistent family
management practices; (c) family conflict, and (d) family alcohol and
drug behavior and attitude. The implication of this heavily relies on
the role of the family in preventing the use and abuse of drugs among
secondary school students.
The data also contained information on the accessibility to drugs.
Most participants reported that they get drugs mainly from their friends,
i.e., they either bought it from their friends or shared it with them.
Consistent with other researches, this study found that those who used
drugs tended to have close friends who also used drugs. Perhaps the

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critical question for prevention is how to minimize the involvement of
students with their drug-abusing peers. Previous studies indicated that
students who were religious tended not to have close friends who use
drugs (Bahr and Maughan, 1998). Thus, religious involvement may be
an important protective factor that helps to decrease the probability of
a young person to choose friends who are drug addicts. This is
important because religion has been ignored in the research on risk
and protective factors.