Early use of drugs increases a person’s chances of developing addiction.
Remember, drugs change brains and this can lead to addiction and other serious problems. So, preventing early use of drugs may go a long way in reducing these risks. If we can prevent young people from experimenting with drugs, we can prevent drug addiction.
Risk of drug abuse increases greatly during times of transition. For an adult, a divorce or loss of a job may lead to drug abuse; for a teenager, risky times include moving or changing schools.
In early adolescence, when children advance from elementary through middle school, they face new and challenging social and academic situations. Often during this period, children are exposed to abusable substances such as cigarettes and alcohol for the first time. When they enter high school, teens may encounter greater availability of drugs, drug use by older teens, and social activities where drugs are used.
The yearly increase in population of youths who abuse drugs has become a major problem to the society and even to the productivity of the Nigerian economy. Major accidents, Murders, Robberies, Suicides etc. are common problems drug and alcohol use have caused in our society. Over 90% of young people in Nigeria and the world in general experiment with drugs and related substances first in College/University first. This is a really troubling situation that should be looked into.
The Government is too busy looking for the barons and chasing peddlers that they have completely forgotten about the drug users themselves. In recent times, the youth ‘high’ is gotten from several synthetically made compounds that are available on campuses by hoodlums while the abuse of several supposedly prescribed drugs such as promethazine, tramadol and codeine is becoming so rampant among students wjich is steadily increasing at an alarming rate.
Awareness and sensitization programs like the Power Ball Tournament which is an inter-university football tournament advocating for the prevention of drug abuse in campuses urging young people to involve in sports rather than sitting and getting high to tackle depression or other social and educational issues they are facing.
We implore the government and other concerned agencies as well as private companies to take advantage of programs like the Power Ball Tournament to create the much needed awareness to curtail this vice from its root – campuses.