I have lived in Nigeria my whole life so far, and I have observed to a great chagrin that drug and substance abuse have serious impacts on Nigerian youths. As a matter of fact, the effects of drug and substance abuses in Nigeria have reached a level that the social malaise needs to be securitized for a more robust priority by the Federal Government of Nigeria. Drug and substance abuses have health implications, educational consequences, social and behavioural impacts, legal consequences, and economic difficulties. I identified and discussed some of the issues and consequences.
1. Health Implications: The most abused drugs and substances in Nigeria are Tramadol, Codeine, Marijuana which is locally called Indian Hemp or We-We, and alcohol causes significant health harms including lungs and liver damages, and neurological impairments. The ease in the accessibility of the drugs in the Nigerian societies makes the rate of the abuses higher. From this fact, the rampant serious health challenges and in the extreme cases, untimely deaths in the Nigerian societies become understandable. Furthermore, drug and substance abuses have mental health implications. I know of a classmate who ran mad because of Marijuana called Igbo or We-We in the Nigerian streets language. He was later rehabilitated but close encounter I had with him showed that all were not well. Generally, it causes anxiety, psychosis, depression and desire to die. In fact, reports of suicides and attempts to it have been common in the media from Lagos and other parts of Nigeria. In the recent past, a video went viral where a young man climbed the heights of a mast and jumped off from there spreading like a snow angel until he hit the ground with a thud. The rest was history. The report and the similar ones indicate mental issues from drug and substance abuses. At the social level, drug and substance abuses strain public health resources.
2. Educational Implications: Academics is a brain activity which by implication means that any lifestyle which affects the brain negatively, affects academic performance. Accordingly, drug abuse often leads to poor academic performance as a result of decreased concentration, absenteeism, and lack of motivation, and even mental health disorders. Nigerian youths that engage in drug and substance abuses are more often than not cultists, and by extension, school dropouts. Drug and substance abuses also make the school environments unsafe for students and teachers due to the threats to lives and properties posed by the drugging members.
3. Social and Behavioural Impacts: Nigeria is a notable African society, and Africa is reputed with a number of fundamental social ethos including respect for the elders, values for hardworking in handiworks, and active service to the defense, growth and development of the society. Nigerian youths that engage in drug and substance abuses trash these values for social vices such as cultism, armed robbery, and advance fee frauds. These crop of Nigerian youths are ready tools for desperate politicians in the perpetrating electoral violence for electoral gains. At home, these young Nigerians that engage in drug and substance abuses beat up women in their circles. Elsewhere, they sexually harass women, and in many cases rape them. Drug and substance abuses ensure that the raw animalistic nature of man is let off the hooks.
4. Economic Difficulties: This is one of the realities of drug and substance abuses because of a number of issues including the fact that substance abuse diminishes employability due to the impact on cognitive and physical abilities. It can lead to job loss and difficulty in finding employment, further perpetuating the cycle of poverty and drug dependence. It is a fact that there is high rate of youth unemployment in Nigeria. It is however, another truth that a good number of Nigerian youths are unemployable. Furthermore, the cost of purchasing drugs can lead to financial instability. Similarly too, healthcare costs related to treating addiction and its health consequences place a burden on families and the healthcare system.
5. Legal Prosecutions: One of the facts of drug and substance abuse is their illegality. This fact of illegality often get the Nigerian youths in legal troubles with the state. Equally, the anti-social behaviours of a typical drug and substance abusive person is a good recipe for legal prosecution.
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