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DANGERS OF DRUG ABUSE AMONG THE YOUTHS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1      Background to the study

Drug abuse is one of the top problems confronting the nation today especially among the youth. Incidences of drug abuse and related anti-social behavior have tremendously increased in recent years. This has become a matter of concern to the government, parents, teachers, Non-governmental organizations and all other relevant agencies. Parents do not recognize the extent of drug use and as a result, some young people think they can use drugs with impunity. Most parents believe that it is the responsibility of teachers to check drug abuse among school going youths and still most of them delude themselves that their children are safe and secure. Drug abuse is not confined to young people in certain geographical areas or from particular social-economic backgrounds. It affects the nation as a whole-both urban and rural areas. The concept of “drug” has been defined as any chemical substance which affect living organism. Such a substance may be used to fight infections and illness or minimize pain, fatigue, anxiety or at times to achieve certain level of euphoria. WHO (1952) defined “drugs” as any substances that when taken into a living body produce reactions or modify its psychological and physiological functioning. On the other hand “drug abuse” has been defined as any use of drugs for nonmedical purposes almost always for altering consciousness. Drug abuse denotes substances that change the mental or physical state of a person and that may be used repeatedly for that effect leading to abnormality. WHO defined “Drug dependence” as a “state” arising from repeated administration of a drug on a periodic or continuous basis in order to experience its psychic effect and sometimes to avoid the discomfort of its absence.(Kilonzo, 1996:170).

However, experience shows that drug abuse has been on the medical and nonmedical drug which is the concern of this study. For the medical drugs, using them without prescription of the medical personnel or using them contrary to the prescriptions of the medical personnel is considered as abusing the medical drugs. For example some people use symptoms of diseases as a means of buying and using different drugs or for quicker recovery as some think, they use drugs not asprescribed by the doctors, i.e. use drugs for four times instead of three times or three times instead of two times per day. For the non-medical or illicit drugs, they include heroin, cocaine, cannabis, opium etc. When these are used it is said that drugs are abused because their uses are not for the purposes of treating, preventing and diagnosing diseases. Cigarette smoking is one of licit drugs which commonly abused by people.

The main effect of using cigarette is nicotine which causes cancer of lungs, gangrene chest pain, death etc.Also alcoholism from the medical point of view indicates a disease caused by chronic, excessive drinking resulting to dependence on alcohol. Physiological definition of alcoholism classifies it as a drug addiction recognizable by the occurance of a withdrawal syndrome when the drinking is stopped. Mbatia (1996:61).In a nutshell alcohol like the other drug abuses, affect the quality of the people’s lives and affect people in both developed and developing countries. Alcoholism and drug abuse are a growing problem in Nigeria affecting people at different levels and groups including street children, prostitutes, the youth, men and women. Ironically drug abuse is no longer a problem confined to the slums and youths in the urbancenters but also in schools, prisons and the rural areas. In this view drug abuse affect almost everybody in the society but the researcher wants to investigate the danger of drug abuse among youths.

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Drug abuse is one of the top problems confronting the nation today especially among the youth. Incidences of drug abuse and related anti-social behavior have tremendously increased in recent years. This has become a matter of concern to the government, parents, teachers, Non-governmental organizations and all other relevant agencies. It is more prevalent than parents suspect. Parents do not recognize the extent of drug use and as a result, some young people think they can use drugs with impunity.

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main objective of this study is dangers of drug abuse among the youths.  But for the successful completion of the study; the researcher intends to achieve the following sub-objectives.

1.   To identify the causes which make the youth to abuse drugs in Nigeria

2.   To find out the impacts of drug abuse among youth in Nigeria

3.   To ascertain the relationship between drug abuse and the youth psychological behavior

4.   To recommend remedial measures of drug abuse among youth in Nigeria

1.4 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

For the successful completion of the study, the following research hypotheses were formulated by the researcher; 

H0:   there are no causes which make the youth to abuse drugs in Nigeria

H1:  there are causes which make the youth to abuse drugs in Nigeria

H02:there are no relationship between drug abuse and the youth psychological behavior

H2:there are relationship between drug abuse and the youth psychological behavior

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

It is believed that at the completion of the study, the findings will be of benefit to the youth. The study will help to address the causes and also provide the remedies to the drug abuse among youth.The study will also be of great benefit to the researchers who intends to embark on research on similar topics as it will serve as a guide. Finally, the study will be of great importance to academia’s, lecturers, teachers, students and the general public.

1.6 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The scope of the study covers the dangers of drug abuse among youth. The researcher encounters some constrain which limited the scope of the study;

a) AVAILABILITY OF RESEARCH MATERIAL: The research material available to the researcher is insufficient, thereby limiting the study       

b) TIME: The time frame allocated to the study does not enhance wider coverage as the researcher has to combine other academic activities and examinations with the study.

c) Organizational privacy: Limited Access to the selected auditing firm makes it difficult to get all the necessary and required information concerning the activities. 

1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS

DANGER: Danger is the general word for liability to all kinds of injury or evil consequences, either near at hand and certain, or remote and doubtful: to be in danger of being killed. Hazard suggests a danger that. Peril usually denotes great and imminent danger: The passengers on the disabled ship were in great peril

DRUG ABUSE: Substance abuse, also known as drug abuse, is a patterned use of a drug in which the user consumes the substance in amounts or with methods which are harmful to themselves or others, and is a form of substance-related disorder.

YOUTH: Youth is the time of life when one is young, but often means the time between childhood and adulthood (maturity). It is also defined as "the appearance, freshness, vigor, spirit, etc., characteristic of one who is young"

1.8 ORGANIZATION OF THE STUDY

This research work is organized in five chapters, for easy understanding, as follows Chapter one is concern with the introduction, which consist of the (overview, of the study), historical background, statement of problem, objectives of the study, research hypotheses, significance of the study, scope and limitation of the study, definition of terms and historical background of the study. Chapter two highlights the theoretical framework on which the study is based, thus the review of related literature. Chapter three deals on the research design and methodology adopted in the study. Chapter four concentrate on the data collection and analysis and presentation of finding.  Chapter five gives summary, conclusion, and recommendations made of the study.