Substance use in secondary schools in Cameroon: A Governance challenge to human capital development

By Musa Nji, Dr. Asahngwa Constatine and Dr. Ronald Gobina

Executive summary

Substance use among secondary-school students in Cameroon is emerging as a significant governance and education challenge with implications for human capital development. Recent studies conducted in Douala, Yaoundé, and Buea indicate that between 42% and 54% of secondary-school students have used at least one psychoactive substance, with alcohol, tobacco, tramadol, and cannabis being the most commonly reported. The problem is driven by easy access to substances, peer influence, social normalization, and weak institutional prevention systems within and around schools. Although Cameroon has legal and policy frameworks addressing drug control and school safety, implementation remains fragmented, coordination among stakeholders is limited, and enforcement around school environments is often inadequate. Substance use negatively affects academic performance, school attendance, discipline, and long-term productivity, thereby undermining national efforts to develop a skilled and competitive workforce. Addressing the challenge requires a coordinated, multi-stakeholder response involving schools, families, communities, health services, civil society, and government institutions.

Key Messages

• Substance use among secondary-school students is a growing threat to human capital development in Cameroon.
• Alcohol, tobacco, tramadol, and cannabis are increasingly accessible to adolescents, driving high levels of use.
• Weak prevention systems, poor coordination, and inadequate enforcement limit the effectiveness of existing policies.
• Substance use undermines learning, school retention, skill development, and future workforce productivity.
• A coordinated response involving schools, families, communities, health services, civil society, and government is essential for effective prevention and control.

Introduction

Substance use and abuse among secondary-school students in Cameroon is emerging as a serious problem and raises concern about education and public-governance. It involves the consumption of substances such as alcohol, tobacco, tramadol, cannabis, and other psychoactive products by adolescents in ways that threaten health, school participation, discipline, and learning outcomes. Because secondary school is a critical stage for skills formation and future productivity, rising substance use in this population has implications not only for student welfare, but also for human capital development and national economic performance. Cameroon’s National Development Strategy 2020–2030 (NDS30) places development of human capital and well-being at the centre of structural transformation, and explicitly states that the transformation of the national economy requires competent and competitive human capital developed through health and education policies that produce a healthy and productive human capital. Secondary education is a strategic stage of child development because it is where young people are prepared for further training, skills acquisition, and productive participation in the labour market. This makes substance use in secondary schools more than a school-discipline issue, it is a human-capital and governance issue because it affects the formation of the future workforce that NDS30 is trying to build.

Available school-based evidence suggests that substance use is already widespread among secondary-school students in Cameroon. In Douala III and IV, a 2024 cross-sectional study of secondary-school students found that 42.8% reported psychoactive substance use with higher prevalence among boys. Alcohol was the most commonly used substance, followed by caffeine and nicotine. Cannabis was the only illicit drug reported, while tramadol was the sole psychotropic medication taken without medical prescription. In Yaoundé, a 2024 study of two high schools found that 42.4% of students had already consumed at least one substance, with alcohol the most commonly used substance at 40.5%. A more recent 2026 study in Yaoundé III reported an overall substance-use rate of 54%, with alcohol the most consumed substance (77.3% of users), followed by tobacco (10%) and tramadol (7%), while cannabis, cocaine, heroin, and glue were also reported. In Buea, peer-reviewed evidence shows that the non-medical use of prescription drugs is present among adolescent secondary-school students, with tramadol identified as the main prescription drug involved. These studies show that the substances use  in Cameroon’s secondary schools are not abstract, they are consequences such as decrease academic performance, health complication including mental health cases, increase in delinquency and poor peer relationship. These consequences are also felt at family level, communities and the society at large.

This pattern matters because the education sector itself recognizes substance use as a barrier to safe learning. Cameroon’s 2023–2030 Education and Training Sector Strategy commits to improving health and psychological support in schools, combating violence and drug use in schools, and ensuring that children learn in a healthy, safe, and protective environment. At the global level, the joint UNESCO–UNODC–WHO framework on education-sector responses to alcohol, tobacco, and drugs states that the education sector has a responsibility to protect children from substance use and that prevention should start early and be sustained across age groups and transition periods. The issue in Cameroon, therefore, is not whether substance use is relevant to schools, it is that the problem has become visible in school populations while the operational response remains too weak and fragmented.

Drivers of substance use in secondary schools

The available evidence points first to availability and access. School-based studies show that alcohol is the dominant substance among students, while tobacco and tramadol are also present. This pattern is consistent with WHO’s broader evidence that poor control of availability is a major driver of adolescent alcohol use and that alcohol remains one of the most common substances used by young people. In Cameroon, the prominence of alcohol and tramadol in student studies strongly suggests that adolescents are accessing substances that are comparatively cheap, familiar, and obtainable through ordinary commercial channels rather than only through hidden illicit markets.

A second driver is social normalization and peer influence. Studies emphasizes that substance use among adolescents is shaped by school climate, peer context, and developmental transitions, which is why sustained school-based prevention is recommended instead of one-off messaging.

A third driver is institutional weakness within and around schools. Cameroon’s own education strategy calls for fighting drugs in schools and communities and improving safe learning environments, which implies that these protections are not yet reliably in place. UNESCO, WHO, and UNODC similarly argue that effective responses require a comprehensive education-sector approach, not isolated punitive actions. Where schools lack clear prevention standards, focal persons, reporting channels, and links to external authorities, exposure and use can become normalized before institutions respond.

Current government initiatives

Cameroon has established a policy and legal framework to address substance use, although implementation remains fragmented and insufficiently targeted at school environments. Within the education sector, the Ministry of Secondary Education (MINESEC) is responsible for school health coordination and student welfare. The Education Sector Strategy 2023–2030 explicitly recognizes the need to combat drug use and violence in schools and to strengthen safe and supportive learning environments. However, these commitments are largely programmatic and have not yet translated into standardized, school-level prevention and response strategies.

From a regulatory perspective, Cameroon operates under Law No. 97/019 of 7 August 1997 governing narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, and precursors, which provides a legal basis for controlling the production, distribution, and consumption of illicit substances. Institutional mechanisms include the National Committee for the Fight against Drugs, established in 1992, and subsequent inter-ministerial coordination frameworks aimed at strengthening enforcement. In addition, government policy statements have reiterated the need to address drug consumption in educational settings.

Apart from government action to curb the problem os substance abuse in secondary schools, several other stakeholders are required to join the fight in order to gain grounds and consolidate wins.  Schools, families, communities, health services, civil society, and local authorities have major roles to play in this fight. Schools play a frontline role in prevention, early identification, and student support, while parents and community structures influence social norms and supervision. Health services provide counselling and treatment pathways, and civil society organizations often support awareness and youth engagement initiatives.

However, the core governance gap is not so much the absence of policy intent as it is the lack of operational systems for implementation, coordination, accountability, and enforcement. First, there is no clearly standardized school-level prevention and reporting framework across secondary schools. Second, coordination between education, health, drug-control, and local-authority actors remains weak. Third, enforcement around school environments is inadequate, especially regarding underage access to alcohol and pharmaceuticals. Because these governance failures are specific and operational, policy recommendations should respond directly to them.

Human capital and socioeconomic consequences

The human-capital stakes are clear. NDS30 links economic transformation to the production of competent, competitive, and healthy human capital and treats education as part of that productive foundation. Substance use during adolescence undermines that objective because it is associated with poorer educational functioning. According to studies,  adolescent substance use is associated with poorer grades and increased risk of skipping school. UNESCO and WHO’s education-sector guidance also treats alcohol, tobacco, and drug use as an education issue precisely because they interfere with school participation, safety, and successful progression.

Substance use affects academic performance by reducing concentration, increasing absenteeism, weakening classroom engagement, and raising the likelihood of poor grades, disciplinary problems, repetition, and school dropout. These effects interrupt the accumulation of knowledge, skills, and social competencies during adolescence, which is a critical period for human development. In the longer term, this weakens skill acquisition, reduces employability, lowers lifetime productivity, and increases the risk of social exclusion. For Cameroon, this means that substance use in schools is not only a student-welfare issue but also a direct threat to the formation of healthy, skilled, and productive human capital. Over time, this translates into broader macroeconomic consequences, including reduced workforce productivity, increased social costs, and diminished returns on public investment in education. For a country pursuing structural transformation, these losses represent a significant constraint on economic growth and competitiveness.

Policy recommendations

1. Establish a multi-stakeholder school substance-use prevention framework: The Ministry of Secondary Education (MINESEC) should lead the development of a national framework that clearly defines the roles of schools, parents’ associations, health services, local authorities, civil society organizations, law enforcement agencies, and community leaders in prevention, early detection, referral, and response. All secondary schools should establish prevention and reporting mechanisms linked to local health and social-support services.
2. Strengthen coordination, enforcement, and community engagement around schools: The Ministries of Secondary Education, Public Health, Youth Affairs, and Territorial Administration, working with local councils and security services, should strengthen enforcement of regulations on underage access to alcohol, tobacco, tramadol, and other psychoactive substances. At the same time, schools, families, religious institutions, and community organizations should support sustained awareness campaigns, peer-education programmes, and parental engagement initiatives.
3. Institutionalize prevention within human capital development policies: Substance-use prevention should be integrated into national education, health, and youth-development programmes, supported by sustainable financing, routine monitoring, and accountability mechanisms. This will ensure that protecting adolescents from substance abuse becomes a shared responsibility and a long-term investment in Cameroon’s human capital development.

Conclusion

Substance use and abuse in secondary schools in Cameroon represent a critical governance challenge with direct implications for human capital development. While policy and legal frameworks exist, their impact is limited by weak implementation, insufficient coordination, and inadequate enforcement. Addressing this issue requires a transition from policy intent to operational delivery, with schools positioned as central platforms for prevention, monitoring, and control. Strengthening these systems is essential not only for improving education outcomes but also for safeguarding Cameroon’s long-term economic transformation.