Background to the Study
Psychoactive substance abuse is a major problem in the world that causes mental disorder, social violence, gang formation, cultism,armed robbery, 419 syndrome, Internet frauds, social miscreants (area boysand girls) lawlessness among youths, lack of respect for elders, rape, loss ofsenses, instant death and wasting of precious and innocent lives (Eric & Makanjuola, Abiodun & Sajo 2014). In order to support this argument, Abdullahi (2009) found thatapart from the genocide of Second World War, there is no other phenomenon that has more debilitating consequences on mankind like the epidemic of substance abuse. This view is anchored on the fact that even the much dreaded Human Immune Deficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) which has yet defied any known cure has substance abuse as one of its principal causes. The concept of psychoactive substance abuse emerged as a result of conceptual framework of Drug abuse which focused on issues related to excessive use of drugs, alcohol, chemicals and non-chemicals. Currently, literatures reported that the term is no longer refers to ‗Drug abuse‘ anymore but rather ‗psychoactive substance abuse‘. This is because, recently people prefer to use any kinds of tangible materials that would alter their normal behavior in the name of deriving pleasure or withstanding pressures (Makanjuola, Abiodun&Sajo 2014). Psychoactive substance abuse is the use of illicit drugs and other chemicals which arenone drug such as glue, cleaning fluids,petrol and other chemicals which causepsychological and physiological effectsto an individual (Eric, 2014). It refers to chronic or habitual use of any chemical substance to alter the States of body or mind, other than medically warranted purposes leading to effects that are detrimental to the individual‘s physical or mental health or the welfare of others. Consequences of psychoactive substance abuse include psychiatric disorder, vital organs damage, peptic ulcer, hypertension, blood cancer, social vices, civil upheavals, school dropout and poor academic performance (Makanjuola et.al, 2014). To address the problems of psychoactive substance abuse, international agencies such as United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and World Health Organization (WHO) provides information about the dangers of abusing psychoactive substances globally, while National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) as a national agency responsible for eliminating the growing, processing, manufacturing, selling, exporting, trafficking and use of hard drugs in Nigeria, provides information to the public on the dangers of abusing psychoactive substances. Psychoactive substance abuse information is communicated through: video clips, social media, billboard, newspapers, radios/television stations, youth forums, conferences and counselling support programs in NDLEA rehabilitation Centre (Oraka, 2007). On the other hand, in order to communicate information about the dangers of substance abuse, scholars have explored the problem from health perspective (Wilson, 2005;Gladys, 2005;Oraka, 2007; Abdulahi, 2009;Fareo, 2012 & Makanjuola et al., 2014) while, (Kardaras, 2008 & Irene, 2010) others approached it from socio-economic perspective However, while these studies have helped to better understand the phenomenon by identifying the causes, prevalence and the strategies for counseling psychoactive substance Addiction behavior, they do not take into consideration of how Drug Addictsperceive psychoactive substance abuse information especially from social construction of reality perspective. Social construction of reality is associated with how knowledge is created through historical facts and real life experiences. It also has the advantage of understanding issues from the perspectives of actors rather than from the perspectives of directors or observer (Henderson, 2014). On this note, this study argues that, to have a better understanding of the process and the strategic ways for counseling and communicating psychoactive substance abuse information that would convince Drug Addicts to become free from Addictive behavior, there is a critical need to explore how Drug Addicts perceive the psychoactive substanceabuse information communicated to them particularly their prior knowledge about consuming psychoactive substance and the experiences they gained at the time of receiving rehabilitation services in NDLEA detention and rehabilitation Centre. The study also used theoretical framework to explain how Drug Addicts particularly in Sabon Gari Metropolitan area perceived psychoactive substance abuse information using Chatman‘s (2012) theory of normative behavior. The theory has the advantages of explaining the reasons behind how individuals understand, perceive and make sense of all issues around their social world (including information) from real life experiences.
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