Media sensitisation and drug abuse
Excerpts from a Paper presented at the Prudent Watch Annual Public Lecture on December 9, 2023
Drugs, especially when regulated, are not dangerous in themselves. For, to be sure, with a prescription from a licensed well-trained personnel, a certain percentage of drugs is advised to be taken for one health issue or another. But drug abuse is not to be taken lightly because those who engage in it are threats to the society.
Unregulated drug intake seems to be the current craze among the youths. Guidance and counseling experts are of the view that drug abuse in the country is one of the by-products of stress and difficulties associated with surviving in the country. And one of the reasons why youths take hard drugs is the easy availability of these drugs, which they believe would help them to forget the stress and difficulties they are facing.
Some youths who indulge in illicit drug ingestion often justify their action by pointing at certain celebrities that are also into drugs.
A lot of attention needs to be paid to the increasing use of destructive drugs in the society, because even primary school pupils have the tendency to be involved in hard drugs abuse if not properly counselled.
Globally, it is no more news that drug abuse is a serious public health issue. Adolescent drug abuse has become one of the most topical health-related issues in Nigeria today. Several school-aged teenagers face mental health issues, which can last for a short time or for a long time. As a result of the deleterious effects of drug abuse, some youths become psychopathic, and ill-adjusted to educational conditions, and eventually quit schools.
Other effects of drug abuse include widespread violence, armed robbery, petty theft (especially to get money to enable addicts have unbroken access to the drugs), brigandage, rape etc as a result of unlimited boldness while ‘high’ on the drugs. It also promotes anti-social behaviours and spread of diseases, especially HIV/AIDS through the unconscionable sharing of syringes, etc with which they ingest drugs intravenously.

Anatomy of Media Power
We must quit any pretension to the fallacy that the mass media is an all-powerful, all-knowing almighty agent of social change. The hypodermic needle theory of the mass media, that we used to know, is no longer tenable! For any change to occur in any given society, it requires the concerted efforts of all segments of that society, especially those that are generally known as agents of social change. These include, the family, the school system, religious organisations, the judiciary, the government, and so on. The media, as an integral part of the society can only play its part in the effort to curb drug abuse among the youths, because it has an undeniable power to convince people to change behaviour.
So, given the severity of drug addiction in our society, the media must assume the moral obligation of informing the public about drugs and drug abuse, by focusing more on the menace as well as other attendant problems.
Today, the media is playing an outstanding role in creating and shaping public opinion and strengthening societal mores and values. Politically, it is the sword arm of democracy. Generally known as the Fourth Estate of the Realm, the media comes after the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary. It acts as watchdog to protect public interest against malpractice and create public awareness.
The media has become an integral part of our daily lives, playing a vital role in shaping our perspectives, informing us about current events, and influencing societal norms. From traditional platforms such as television, radio, and newspapers to modern digital media outlets, created by the ubiquitous social media, the media generally has a significant impact on individuals and society as a whole.
To be sure, the role of the media in the society is multi-faceted and pivotal. It serves as a catalyst for change, providing information, shaping opinions, and raising awareness on critical issues. The media is the custodian of public interest. Thus, it should focus on performing the noble role of enlightening the people, broadening their vision and making them vigilant towards the larger goal of creating a civilized and prosperous society.
Some of the reasons for which adolescents abuse drugs and other illicit substances include a lack of knowledge about the dangers of the substances, a demonstration of personal freedom, peer pressure, satisfying curiosity, poor self-confidence, failure to sustain inter-personal communications, and stress relief.
One of the best ways of discouraging more youths from indulging in illicit drug intakes is through sensitisation, making them aware of the dangerous effects that hard drug consumption could have on them, and also letting them know that taking drugs will just make them forget their problems for a short while, but would never solve them. The youths must be made to understand, through consistent media exposure, that facing their problems frontally by engaging themselves in productive ventures is what would bring about expected solutions.
Media efforts in this regard should not only be concentrated on the youths alone, even though they are the primary target. The parents too need to be sensitised on the need for them to help in winning the fight against drug abuse among their wards. The media should educate the parents on the need to communicate with their children effectively, i.e., they should not just see themselves as parents only, but also as friends to their children.
Parents should also be encouraged, through massive media sensitisation, to start inculcating in their children early in life, the essence of a responsible and healthy living.
There is a compelling need to wean the youth from bad companies and undesirable mentors. In this guise, the media should continuously let the young people know that what they do today would definitely affect what they become tomorrow. And as such, they should be made to understand what being responsible and what healthy living is all about. They should get themselves good mentors, who will guide them properly.
The media also have the responsibility of educating the young people that they do not necessarily have to look up to celebrities as role models because sometimes the public lives of those they consider as celebrities are always different from their private lives.
Another way by which the media can help in reducing the incidence of drug abuse is through a more positive deployment of our investigative journalism expertise. We can wean our youths, who are already into drugs, by trying to find out their reasons for venturing into such habit. Once this is done, counselors should try and tackle these reasons because different people have different reasons for venturing into different things.
Essentially, the mass media should be more creative in their content and in some cases, they should employ persuasive communication to be able to influence a good number of youths positively and make them shun drug abuse.
The mass media is sometimes blamed by some people, and even rightly so, for heavily popularising drug use through unwholesome focus on so-called celebrities who are known drug addicts in their reportage. To effectively take up their moral obligation and role of being the society’s moral compass, the media should de-emphasise their focus on these social misfits and self-acclaimed celebrities and role models if not for any other thing but for the fact that they are exerting too much negative influence on the youths.
While underlining the dangers of drug use, the media must also provide information about available aid centres. In view of this, there is an urgent need for a large-scale media campaign to disseminate information about the negative repercussions, legal provisions, and the availability of therapeutic and counselling services for the treatment and social rehabilitation of identified drug addicts.
In exercising its much-vaunted agenda-setting role, the mass media should set the tone and be the driving force behind a well coordinated national drug awareness campaign. It should highlight both macro and micro factors leading to the existence of this menace, as well as encourage community participation in preventing the malaise from getting worse.
Because of its extensive impact on public opinion, the media can assist in establishing a regular assessment of the extent and scope of drug use and abuse, as well as drug-related problems in the country.
In concluding my presentation, I want to seize this opportunity to commend the Kwara State government and the University of Ilorin for their sustained efforts in combating drug abuse within their respective areas of jurisdiction. With its zero tolerance for anti-social behaviour among its students, the University of Ilorin has done a lot in reducing the incidents of this social malaise, especially among the student populace and within the environs of the school’s immediate host community.
On its part, the Kwara State government is also doing a lot in the area of trying to curb the menace of drug abuse in the state. Just recently, the government initiated a meeting with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on the need to commence a massive sensitisation campaign all over the state to tackle the root causes of drug abuse and raise public awareness about its detrimental effects in the society.
I am of the firm belief that with initiatives like these, supported by a more aggressive media sensitisation effort, our society is on a sure path to substantially reducing, if not completely extirpating the menace of drug abuse by the youths!
Thank you for listening.