Anti-Social Behavior Among Youths Linked to Drug Abuse
-
- March 15, 2021
Drug abuse has been the most problematic issue for the nation among the youths. Incidents of drug, alcohol and substance abuse and related anti-social behaviour have recently increased mostly during this pandemic period.
This has become a matter of concern to the government, NGOs, parents, teachers and all other relevant agencies.
Most parents believe that it is the responsibilities of teachers to check drug abuse among the school going children and some of them assume that their children are safe and secure.
Drug abuse does not only matter in slums and low income families but also families living under better conditions.
According to National Campaign Against Drug Abuse (NACADA), the level of drug abuse is currently scary, fact that everyday youths get wired to drugs, whereby alcohol, bhang, and tobacco increasingly used by youths aged 16 to 30 years.
Who should be blamed?
Most of the youths are being influenced by those they associate with that already are in practice of drug abuse.
Drug abuse as a form of anti-social behavior can be learned through media such as newspapers, movies, radios and televisions. However, there is no scientific fact to show the way in which the media has influenced the youths into drug abuse, but they usually copy from peers and parents.
Some youths in campus use drugs not because they have stress or money problems but only for pleasure of it and to have more fun.
Abuse of alcohol and other drugs affects body functioning, ie. vision, coordination and speech and also leads to risk-taking behaviour.
The youth involved in drug abuse end up affecting their relationships with family members and friends, they are likely to be involved in fights and these gets them into trouble with the law.
And since drug abuse causes irresponsible sexual behaviour, girls end up getting unwanted pregnancies and this leads to dropping out of school.
During this Covid-19 period, most teenagers ended up pregnant, some of them got into abuse of drugs, leaving a high number of students out of school.
When schools opened in January 2021 after a long break due to Covid-19, we saw a lot of incidents where students are killing each other, fighting teachers and destroying school properties, some of them killing their own parents, all these can be because of drug abuse.
Drug users engage in fights, destruction of things and disrespect to others.
What do we do?
Drug abuse solutions can take a long process and needs a lot of money and time, the problem of anti- social behavior is for the whole community and should not be left to a few institutions like churches, schools and the police.
It should be recognized by every individual as their own problem even if your child is not involved in drug abuse.
The Kenyan government initiated NACADA, which coordinates initiatives and campaigns against drug abuse.
Parents should also be sensitive to the dangers of drug abuse, and be role models to their children to prevent drug abuse among them, they should be aware of youths habits, skills and attitude to teach them to become good citizens.
Clear and specific rules regarding drug abuse that include strong corrective actions should be established. In this way there can be light at the end of the tunnel.
