YOUTHS AND DRUG ABUSE IN THIS GENERATION

Abstract

Youth drug abuse has emerged as a critical global challenge, with its prevalence increasing across diverse socio-economic and cultural contexts. This paper examines the rise of substance abuse among youths in the contemporary generation, analysing the issue through the intersections of religion, faith, morality, and law. While drug misuse is a worldwide problem, its manifestations differ significantly between nations such as Nigeria. United Kingdom and the United States of America (USA). Nigeria faces escalating abuse of substances such as codeine, tramadol, cannabis, and methamphetamine, often driven by unemployment, weak regulatory environments, and socio-religious tensions. In contrast, the USA reports high levels of opioid, cannabis, and synthetic drug misuse among adolescents and young adults, influenced by factors such as prescription drug culture, mental health challenges, and pervasive drug normalisation in media. The paper adopts a qualitative and doctrinal methodology, supported by comparative socio-legal analysis. Primary sources include domestic statutes, international conventions, religious texts, and judicial decisions, while secondary sources comprise academic literature, empirical health reports, and policy documents from agencies such as the UNODC, NDLEA, CDC, and NIDA. The interdisciplinary approach allows for a comprehensive assessment of legal, moral, and religious perspectives on youth drug abuse. Findings indicate that youth drug misuse is driven by overlapping factors like peer influence, digital culture, socio-economic pressures, declining religious engagement, and weakened moral accountability systems. The paper also finds that religion and faith-based organisations in Nigeria, United Kingdom and the USA play crucial but under-utilised roles in prevention and rehabilitation. However, Nigeria relies more heavily on communal and religious moral structures, whereas the UK and USA lean towards clinical, psychological, and public health models. The paper concludes with the fact that effective youth drug abuse prevention requires an integrated framework combining legal regulation with moral education, religious value-based interventions, and community support systems. A multi-layered approach blending statutory enforcement, faith-rooted counselling, and ethical development is necessary for sustainable behavioural change among youths in Nigeria, United Kingdom and the United States of America.