Substance Abuse and Antisocial Behaviour of Youth in Nsukka Local Government Area, Enugu State

Abstract

Debates over the years, have favored the assumption that individuals who engage in substance abuse have high proclivity to demonstrate antisocial behaviours as direct consequence of substance abuse. But with increase in different psychotropic substances and reports of wide spread substance abuse, this study attempted to revisit youth substance abuse with the hope of ascertaining the current nature of substances they abuse, the extent to which they abuse it, how the abuse relates to their antisocial behaviours, the consequences of the above on them, the challenges associated with the mitigation/control of youth drug abuse and measures that could be adopted to address the phenomenon of youth drug abuse and antisocial behaviours. The study is anchored on containment theory and based its analysis on quantitative data obtained from randomly selected sample of five hundred and ninety-four (594) youth, and qualitative data obtained from purposively selected nine (9) interviewees. Data collected using questionnaire were coded and analyzed with SPSS Version 21 for descriptive and inferential result, while the qualitative responses were transcribed and analyzed to provide in-depth insights, using direct quotes and illustrations. The study found a significant positive correlation between the extent of substance use and degree of indulgence in antisocial behaviours. Property related antisocial behaviours like theft, armed robbery and vandalism were all found to relate with different forms of substance abuse. Measures like youth empowerment, access to counselling services, public sensitization, police border patrol, and increasing the cost of regularly abused substances could be improved to reduce youth drug abuse.