Epidemiological data from Nigeria shows a rising prevalence of psychoactive substance use among adolescent population with significant and negative impacts on their physical and mental health. The commonly used psychoactive substances among Nigerian adolescent are alcohol, hypnosedatives, tobacco and psychostimulants with the overall lifetime prevalence varying from one part of the country to another. Most of the earlier cited epidemiological studies assessing psychoactive substance use and abuse in adolescents were conducted among secondary school students, while none was conducted among artisans in apprenticeship training. Moreover, a good number of these artisans in apprenticeship training are dropout students of secondary schools. Hence, the need for this study to assess the prevalence rates of psychoactive substance use and abuse among students of secondary schools and compare with that of the artisans in apprenticeship training. OBJECTIVE The objective of this study was to assess the prevalence and correlates of substance use and abuse among adolescents in secondary schools and artisan in apprenticeship training in Abeokuta, Ogun state, Nigeria METHODS A total of seven hundred and forty four respondents were recruited of which five hundred and forty nine were students in public schools, one hundred and twenty one were students from private schools and seventy four were artisans in apprenticeship training. Students were recruited from secondary schools in Abeokuta and the artisans in apprenticeship training were recruited from different training centers in Abeokuta. Each respondents completed ii the adapted versions of the World Health Organisation (WHO) – Students’ Drug Use Questionnaire and the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT). The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software (version 21) was used for analysis. Confidence interval was set at 95% and all tests were two-tailed. Statistical significance was considered at a p - value less than 0.05. RESULTS All respondents were aged between 10 and 17 years with the mean age of 14.40 (±1.91) years of which respondents in public schools were 14.56 (±1.92) years, private schools 13.4 (±1.58) years and artisan apprentice 15.1 (±1.70) years. Among public and private school respondents, majority (47.3% and 63.6%) were between 13 and 15 years of age respectively while among artisan apprentice the majority (52.7%) were between 16-17years of age. The private school students were predominantly Christians (71.1%) while half of the public school students and artisan apprentice were Muslims. Most of the respondents in all the three groups are from monogamous family setting (67.6-78.5%) and most parents staying together (65.9 – 76.9%). The majority of the public school students (49.9%) belonged to the low (IV and V) socioeconomic class, while the majority of private school students (62%) were in the upper (I and II) socioeconomic class. and among the artisan apprentice group, the majority (35.1%) were in the middle (III) socioeconomic class. Most of the public and private school students reported that they first observe the use of substance in their neighbourhood and home video while most artisan apprentice reported their training centers. The overall lifetime prevalence of any substance use among all respondents was 40.1%, while among students of public and private schools were 42.6% and 36.4% respectively and artisan apprentice 27%. The most used substances (lifetime use) among the public school students were mild stimulants (25.7%), pain killer (25.7%) and