Drug Abuse and Youth Quality of Life:  Overcoming the Challenge in Nigeria.

This Policy Brief draws from a NISER Study on the Impact of Drug Abuse on Youth Quality of Life.

Whatever destroys quality of life of youth, destroys a nation. In realization of this danger, former US President Ronald Reagan declared war on illicit drugs on October 14, 1982, due to threats to US national security. Presently, drug trafficking carries the death penalty in 35 countries of the world (HRI, 2023). The discontinuance of the death penalty in Nigeria under Decree 20 of 1984 was not due to the declining level of drug-related problems in the country, but to Nigeria’s commitment to the fundamental principle of the ‘right to life’.
Sadly, available figures indicate that 14.4% (14.3 million) Nigerians in the age group 15-64 years abuse drugs (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes, 2022).

Based on a related NISER study, this policy brief examined the effects of drug abuse on youth quality of life.