I wonder why drugs have become so rampant nowadays among the youths. I remember my growing up years in the eighties; it was not common or heard of girls indulging in drugs or cigarette, yeah we had some girls who were naughty and may have indulge in smoking cigarette or with a cigar, at the pool but hard drugs hmm unusual, it was not easy to get and common like now. My mates and I in the eighties were in our early teens that were exposed to educative films, respectful to our parent event scared of them; we were mostly from average homes with very educated parents, who were senior civil servant. In most homes women were full time housewife’s, who were always around whenever you got home. To go out after school, you had to take permission explaining where you were going to, and whom you were going to see. In those days there was no mobile phone, just land line phone that was in the parlor where everyone hangs around to watch TV, to read or just sit especially our parents, so when the phone rings everyone attention is drawn to the phone to know who is calling. Everyone is listening to your conversation and at the end of the conversation they either knew who was calling or they ask you. Our parent especially our mum knew our friends and places we visited.

I went to government school so my friends where from all levels the rich, the poor, very poor and the average. I visited friends living in very populated areas with all kinds of people including criminal’s big and small ones yet, I never came across hard drugs, or had any friends who ever spoke of drugs, not to talk of taking it. When we went to the village visiting we never saw or heard drugs been peddled or consumed, it was in the early nineties while in the higher institution that I heard of marijuana and saw people taking it, then later heroin and cocaine was the in things.

Trendy

It was sold in every corner of Lagos especially heroine which was injected in to the nerves by an injection shared by many; later it was the in thing in every big party you attended in Lagos, cocaine and heroin were part of the menu. If you were not careful you find yourself following the trend, it was truly the trend in Lagos in those days, then people had not known how damaging it was and those who took these substances abuse were not children but young adults, even at then you had to be financially ok to take these drugs, I never saw them smoking anyhow or anywhere like is done now

When people discover how damaging and destructive these drugs were in the early nineties and middle nineties many became afraid of it and many became aware of how evil and damaging it was to the body. So how come drugs are still the in thing today not among adult only but among teens smoking it everywhere, and anyhow without regards or respect for anyone. The painful thing about it is that you see young girls and boys within the age of 15 and 16 sitting in joints, smoking among very mean hard face scary men, heavily drugged by all kind of substance.



How they get involved in drugs?

The question is how does this kind of children get in contact with drugs? In this heavy populated area where majority of unskilled people and illiterate leave, majority of the parent are petit trader both men and women sell hard alcohol like (ogogoro, erujeje, and ethanol etc.) with cigarette and some sell marijuana, tramadol, Eskom . In these environments even police are scared to come there, these petit traders are assisted by their children, from a very tender age, they are exposed to vulgar words, to cheap hard alcohol drinks, to cigarette and to marijuana and capsules with other form of drugs, for these children to survive they go for errand for these clients who patronize their parent shop so that they have little extra to eat and in return are given a drag of the smoke and a token