64 Bangladesh e-Journal of Sociology. Volume 14, Number 2. July 2017 Religiosity, Gender, and Educational Attainment as Predictors of Drug Abuse in South Africa: A Logistic Regression Approach * Matthew O. Olasupo 1.2 Erhabor S. Idemudia 1 Abstract: The study examined religiosity, gender, and educational attainment as predictors of drug abuse in South Africa. Cross-sectional data from 2015 South Africa General Household survey was used for the study. Data was analyzed on 47,275 respondents ages 18 to 114 years. The mean age of the respondents was 40.3 (SD = 16.42). Results showed that religiosity has significant effect on drug abuse χ 2 (df = 3) = 37.81, p<.001. Results further showed that gender has asignificant effect on drug abuse χ 2 (df = 3) = 26.77, p<.001. Finally, the outcome of the study showed that educational attainment has asignificant effect on drug abuse χ 2 (df = 3) = 14.13, p<.001. The result of the logistic regression showed that the hazard rate for the males was higher than that of the females. It was also revealed that as educational attainment increases, hazard rate for drug abuse decreases. The result further showed the hazard rate for the religious respondents to be lower compared to that of the non-religious respondents. As a conclusion, we recommend that drug abuse can be controlled by encouraging more religious practices, make education more accessible and affordable, and controlthe accessibility/availabilityof drugs of abuse, especially among the males citizens. Keywords: Drug abuse, Educational attainment, Gender, Religiosity, South Africa. Introduction The problem of drug abuse is a universal health challenge. The 2015 United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime Report estimated that globally a total number of 246 Million people, aged 15 to 64 used illicit drugs in 2013 (UNODC, 2015). The 2016 World Health Statistics report also estimated that as at 2010, 38% of the world population aged 15 and above had drunk alcohol in the last 12 months (WHO, 2016). Both these reports have pointed to the fact the problem of drug abuse transverse race, nationalities, and geographical locations. It cuts across gender, religion, socio-economic and demographic enclaves. The nation of South Africa is not exempted from the burden of drug abuse. According to the WHO World Health Statistics(WHO, 2016), 11.5 total alcohol per capita consumption for the population aged 15 and above was estimated for 2015. This figure is the highest in Africa following Gabon and Namibia with estimated total alcohol per capita consumption of 11.8.furthermore, the analysis of the South African Community Epidemiology Network on Drug Use has shown that drug * We are appreciative to the Statistics South Africa (statssa) for the opportunity to use the 2015 General Household survey for this study. We are indeed, grateful. 1 Faculty of Human and Social Sciences, North West University (Mafikeng Campus), Mmabatho, South Africa. Email: gbenga.olasupo@yahoo.com 2 Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife, Nigeria