Globally, the rise in substance abuse among young people have been documented, there is however a decline in the age of an average drug user. Younger people are into substance usage. Substance abuse is a significant problem among school-age youth. National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH,2007), an annual survey sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration SAMHSA, 2008), and the annual Monitoring the Future Survey (Johnston, O’Malley, Bachmsn, & Schulenberg, 2008) indicate that substance abuse is prevalent among adolescents. Federal Ministry of Health, Nigeria, (2007) report that alcohol and cigarette are the most common substance abuse among young people, while cannabis is the most common illicit drug taken by same population. About 8% of Nigerian adolescents aged 10-19 years reported having used cannabis. There has been a report of the use volatile organic solvents such as petrol, and glue sniffing among adolescents. Also documented is a high incidence of non-medical or self-medicated use of psychotropic substances such as benzodiazepines (Federal Ministry of Health., Nigeria, 2007).
The abuse of alcohol, illicit and prescription drugs among adolescents is a major health problem internationally. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) reports that in 2010 approximately 5 % of the world’s population, most of which are young people, used an illicit drug. It is estimated that alcohol abuse results in 2.5 million deaths pet year and that heroin, cocaine and other drugs are responsible for 0.1 to 0.2 million deaths per year (UNODC, 2005, 2010). Research findings reveal high prevalence of substance abuse among adolescents in Nigeria (Omokhodion & Faseru, 2007; lgwe et al.,2009; Oshodi et al.,2010).
In a related research carried out in the USA by The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services administration (SAMHSA, 2013) on the Annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), an increase in the use of illicit drugs among Americans aged 12 years or older was reported. Also people in their late teens and twenties returned the highest use of illicit drug. In 2013, 22.6 percent of 18- to 20 year-olds reported using an illicit drug in the past month (SAMHSA 2013). There were just over 2.8 million new users of illicit drugs in 2013, or about 7,800 new users per day. Over half(54.l percent) were under 18 years of age (National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA, 2015).