DRUG ABUSE AND ITS CHALLENGING EFFECT ON YOUTHS OF CENTRAL PLATEAU STATE
Isaac Peter Chingle
Volume 5 Issue 2
Abstract
Drug addiction can be devastating and shameful; its consequences to the nation have led to worry about the scourge among the youth and adolescents. The problem of substance abuse is so great that, though it was originally conceived as the problem of a ‘select few’, it has extended beyond the usual characteristics of abusers being male, adult, and urban-based people now to include females, youngsters, and rural dwellers. The accompanying problems of this act constitute a major threat to the well-being of society if not checked immediately. This study is exploratory and uses the psychosocial theory of drug abuse dependence to explain the use of substances in Nigeria. The study established that the majority of young people engage in drug addiction in the search for pleasure to alter their state of consciousness. It also shows that people abuse drugs for the enhancement of good feelings and use them as a means of coping with stress in life. Drug abuse, according to the study, appears to be common among males, with 94.2%, while females have 5.8%, and the age of first use is between 10 and 29 years. The use of volatile organic solvents is 0.53%. The record of drugs abuse in Nigeria as established by the study shows that the Northwest has a statistic of 37.47% of the drug victims in the country, while the Southwest has been rated second with 17.32%, the South-east was rated third with 13.5%, North-central has 11.71%, while the North-east zone has 8.54% of the drug users in the country. The study concludes that drug abuse is a social problem basically associated with young people and therefore recommends that youths have to be kept busy at all times and that greater availability of good educational activities, materials, and leadership opportunities is necessary to curtail youths’ restiveness. Keywords: Drugs Abuse, Youths, Addition, Plateau State
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