Nine (9) Reasons for and Causes of Drug Abuse in Nigeria

INTRO: Substance abuse and drug abuse are used interchangeably. The two concepts are coterminous but not the same. To be clear,  every drug abuse is a substance abuse but not every substance abuse is a drug abuse. The word abuse features consistently in the two concepts nonetheless, and it has to do with excessive intake, and/or  use without prescription, and/or illegal use, and/or misuse of drugs or substances. I have often been tempted to saying that abuse has something to do with ABnormal USE. A great deal of verities of drugs and substances exist which can be abused such as: Alcohol (wine, gin, beer, whiskey), Prescription Medication (stimulants, sedatives, opioids, tranquillisers), Over-the-Counter (OTC) drugs (cough medicines, cold medicines, and motion sickness pills), Illegal Drugs (cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, anabolic steroids, heroine), Club Drugs (ecstasy, ketamine, rohypnol). The reasons for drug and substance abuse which are also considered the causes of drug and substance abuse are numerous. We discussed some of them as hereunder. 

The reasons for and causes of drug abuse in Nigeria are:

1. Porous National Borders: 

The foremost reason for and causes of drug abuse in Nigeria is porosity of the borders. For instance, Nigeria's borders are poorly manned and this allows infiltration of illicit drugs and substances into the country as a result.  In a report by The Cable on August 25, 2022, the former Chief of Defence Staff, Lucy Irabor was quoted as saying that out of 261 borders in the Northeast and Northwest regions of Nigeria, 137 borders are unguarded. This indicates that the level of porosity of Nigerian borders are high, thereby leaving Nigeria open to influx of illegal drugs and other national security threats. Generally, the continued access to, and use of illegal drugs are caused by the porous borders in Nigeria. 

2. People abuse drugs because of peer influence. 

A statement goes: show me your friends, and I will tell you who you are. The statement is based on the fact that bad company corrupts good manner. A great number of drug addicts learned it socially in the first instance before it is built over time into an addiction. By and large, youngsters in Nigeria engage in illicit drug activities because of the influences of their friends and associates. 

3. Social Media Influence: 

Another reason for drug abuse in Nigeria is the bad influence from the social media. The ubiquity of social media platforms and its accessibility have bearing on the drug and substance abuses in the society. Social media contents which overly promote drug and substance abuses abound, just to say less about the contents that do it covertly. Celebrities on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and WhatsApp flaunt their wealth sometimes by their recreational drug uses. Social media users who are not conscious and cautious take the lifestyle hook, line and sinker in a bid to be and do like the celebrities on the social media.

4. Poor Parenting: 

I stated it elsewhere that the poorly parented children are nowadays parents, and this worsens the situation of characters and manners in the society. The reason is simple: They cannot give what they don't have. Consequently, children are poorly trained in the acceptable social ethos so that drug and substance abuses are their lifestyle, which by trickle down effect results in armed robbery, banditry, militancy, prostitution, and a host of other vices.

5. Weak Regulatory Institutions: 

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) saddled with the responsibilities of regulation, enforcement and control on drugs and related matters are simply weak at the face of their daunting mandates. The weaknesses are among other things caused by under-funding and under-staffing. The weaknesses however left loopholes for bypassing surveillance and control. Regrettably therefore, drug addicts and peddlers have field days in their obnoxious activities. It is therefore obvious that there is drug abuse in Nigeria because of the weaknesses of the relevant institutions against the social malaise. 

6. Over-the-Counter Drugs: 

Some of the OTC drugs such as cough medicines and cold medicines are used to achieve highness because they contain codeine. The drugs have legal access but can be illegally used. In efforts to stemming the access to the drugs prepared for treatment of mild to severe pains but which are abused, a great deal of OTC drugs including Tramadol have been designated a Prescription Only Medication (POM) so that it can only be accessed with a doctor's prescription. The strength of the drug was even reduced to 50 and 100 mg, but 200 and 225 mg are still being smuggled into the Nigerian markets via the porous borders. For this reason, Tramadol and Codeine are the most abused drugs in Nigeria. Alcohol on the other hand is the most abused substance.

7. Weak Penalties: 

The essence of punishing drug law offenders is to serve as deterrence to others. The widespread drug abuse in Nigeria indicates weaknesses in the sanctions against the social sin. Observations in the streets of Nigeria to a great surprise,  shows that law officials use their offices to traffic in drugs. They also use those hard drugs themselves. Drug Lords in their records have also been given dark licences to operate in the racket as he might have paid them loads of money for that. It is worthwhile to say that a great deal of them still give due diligence to their enforcement jobs, but the outliers leave the enforcement institutions weak, and those who are supposed to face the wrath of the law, languishing in the prisons are walking freely on the streets. 

8. Addiction in Gambling: 

The degree of association that drug and substance abuses maintain with gambling is very high, and now, nooks and corners of Nigeria are replete with gambling shops. The pervasive Internet services and its adoption in Nigeria have taken the access to gambling several notches higher so that one needs not to go to a gambling shop in order to gamble. It is just Internet connection. Gamblers take recourse to drugs as a solace to the almost inevitable losses in the gambling activity, until it reaches a crescendo where the gambler is not just an addict in gambling but also in drugs. 

9. Unemployment and Poverty: 

The duo are like two sides of a coin. Youth unemployment is high in Nigeria, and by consequence, poverty and starvation are rampant. The fact of unemployment is pointing to the status of being idle. The high unemployment rate in Nigeria therefore translates to high number of idle Nigerian youths which are left susceptible to social vices including drug abuse. An idle mind they say, is the devil's workshop.