CHAPTER ONE

 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study

Drug abuse according to Laver (1978), simply means the improper use of drugs to the degree that the consequences became detrimental to the user and or the society. The World Health Organization (WHO, 2006), defined drug abuse as a state of periodic or chronic intoxication, detrimental to the individuals and to the society, produced by the repeated consumption of a drug (natural or synthetic).

Some other drugs have been found to be capable of producing effects that are not beneficial but harmful (Oloyede, 1996). The term drug abuse, applies only to instances in which people take drugs purely to change their moods, and in which people experience impaired behaviours or social functioning as a result of doing so (Wallace & Fisher 1987). Unfortunately, when people consume consciousness-altering drugs on a regular basis, they often develop dependence and come to need the drug, and cannot function without it. According to Odejide, Ohaeri, Adelekan and Ihuesan (1987), they remarked that psychoactive substance abuse is a common problem among adolescents especially for the socially acceptable drugs like alcohol and cigarettes. A survey of secondary school students in Ilorin, Kwara State reported that 12 percent were using alcohol (Abiodun, Adelekan, Ogunremi, Oni & Obayan, 1994).

A drug has been defined as any substance that when absorbed into a living organism may modify one or more of its physiological functions (Croen, Woesner, Hermann and Reichgott, 1997). The term is generally used in reference to a substance taken for both therapeutic purpose and as abused substances (Kwamanga, Odhiambo and Amukoye, 2003). Drug abuse is excessive illicit drug use also defined as self-administration of illicit drugs, in quantities/frequencies which may impart functional inability resulting in the user’s physical, social and/or emotional self-harm (Croen, et al., 1997). Using this latter definition, abused drugs in Kenya would include antibiotics, anti-diarrhoeas, laxatives and pain-relieving drugs (Otieno and Ofulla, 2009). 

A United States of America (USA) study further revealed that excessive illicit drug use rate among high school students and young adults increase with age with a prevalence rate of 19.6% between the ages of 18-20 years as indicated in Kwamanga, et al., (2003) a quotation from the [Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), (1997)] in the USA. In Britain; cross–sectional studies have shown that at least 40% of women aged 25-26 years have had used illicit drugs - mainly cannabis sativa, at one of their lifetimes or some time in their lives. Also among those aged 26-30 years, 38% of males and 5% of females regularly drink twice per week which is the recommended save level of taking alcohol as recommended in [Alcohol Concern, (2000)] as quoted from Miller and Plant (1996).

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