Substance abuse among Nigerian youths

Abstract

Substance abuse has become more prevalentamong Nigerian youths and emerged as amajor public health problem. The youthsare the future of the country and hence leadersof tomorrow. Thus, we need them to besubstance abuse free to perform their rolesoptimally. Unfortunately, many of them areyielding to the vices of substance abuseleading to the disruption of their education,occupation and family life. Some yield tosubstance abuse due to the feeling of wantingto be among their peers and the feeling ofexperimentation among many other reasons.Some of the substances are however addictiveeven after the initial experimentation. The endresult is that we have so many of our youngergeneration addicted to different types ofsubstances including over-the-counter drugs,alcohol, cigarettes, cannabis and so on. Unlesssomething drastic is done, we appear set tohave so many youths that are dependent onthese substances and unable to perform theirroles as future leaders. Therefore hands mustbe on deck to stem the tide.