Interviews with people who are involve in this act have revealed that different people have different reasons given are as follows.
1 Curiosity and desire to experiment: people who fall to this category are those who have heard about particular drugs either over the radio, television or from friends or who read about them in the dailies. The tendency is for them to make efforts to get the drug and have a taste of it to test whether all that has been said about the particular drug is true or not.
2 Peer pressure: In Nigeria, as in some other parts of the world, birds of the same feather flock together. In other words, one may not enjoy the company of others unless one conforms to their norms. This type of practice is particularly common among students. Unless one is a smoker, he may not be accepted to that group where all members smoke. And if the person decides to join that company but with strong determination not to smoke, the members of the group will mount such a great pressure on him that he too will consider having a puff. The same thing is applicable to other drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD).
3 To cover inadequacies: Some individuals are so shy that they cannot speak or perform before a large crowd. In order to gain boldness, such people will resort to drugs that embolden them to face up to a threatening situation.
4 For relaxation: After the day’s activity, some people often feel that they cannot get a restful sleep without taking some pills. Hence, they look for some form of analgesics or sleeping pills to calm them and send them to sleep.
5 To keep awake: Among the group of people who use drugs to keep awake most especially at nights are students, soldiers and policemen, night-watches, truck drivers, sailors and musicians. These groups of people resort to certain drugs which they feel can assist them to burn the midnight oil either at the approach of examination in the case of students or improved performances as in case of other aforementioned groups people.
6 To enjoy sex: Owing to peer influence, some people take drugs for sex enjoyment. Some take drugs for this purpose not that they cannot naturally perform sexually but just to get added sexual power and for the fun of it. Some others take it as a result of old age.
7 To remove boredom: Man is not without mental strain and tensions. The sources of some people’s of some emotional disturbances may by their home - quarrels with spouse, economic problems may emanate from their relationship with their relationship with co-workers or bosses.
8 To get “high”: A category of people who often fall victim of this reason for taking drugs are the musicians. Some musician feel that to really get their audience into a top gear of entertainment, they must have a high sense of well-being themselves and so they look for drugs can really achieve these goals. (THIS IS THE GROUP I BELONG)
NB: Drugs meant in this write-up includes
Marijuana,
Alcohol,
Smoking,
Analgesics,
Barbiturates or Sedatives
Tranquilizers
Stimulants
Caffeine
Cocaine and
Amphetamines
If you take any of the aforementioned tell us the reason