International and national research efforts have to be stepped up to find better
preventive and curative measures to control excessive and unnecessary use and abuse of drugs by individuals and groups in our society. Substance abuse problems have become more complex and dangerous to our society day by day.

The contributions which are assembled in this book must be used to arouse public concern and stimulate the political will to attack drug problems, based on an assessment of their damaging effects on humanity. We must also attack the problem through many disciplines of science. including a concerted international action, ever greater research action and global exploitation of our knowledge. The application of our increasing knowledge in the areas of the study of the biology of man and his social behaviour, and of socio-economic factors should help us to sow a seed of discovery.

Dr. Obot has displayed not only his concern but has produced a tool to guide future research, policy, and clinical work by which we can continue to expand our knowledge and erect appropriate and effective programmes in this area. He has succeeded in planting a seed of discovery by putting together very careful information that will certainly lead us to a more productive strategy to cope with this ever-increasing problem in Nigeria.

Published in Nigeria by Centre for Research and information on Substance Abuse (CRISA)
with a grant from the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) Vienna, Austria

PREFACE
This annotated bibliography is an attempt to organise published research and writings on drugs and drug abuse in Nigeria in order to make that body of knowledge accessible to all who are interested in drug-related issues. Information on what has already been done in any field of study is necessary for the development of systematic inquiry in that field. Finding such information has been a daunting task in the drug abuse field as in many other fields in Nigeria. This volume is the first in what will be a regular publication and covers a period of thirty years, front 1964-1994.

Drug abuse as a social problem came to the attention of Nigerian psychiatrists and social scientists in the late 1950s. But it was not until the early 1960s that the first studies on the problem were published in scientific journals. In fact the oldest article listed in this volume was published in 1964.
A couple of articles published before 1964 made indirect reference to drug abuse in the country.

The initial focus of researchers was on epidemiology and psychiatric morbidity associated with illicit drugs but the interests of researchers today span the gamut of drug related issues, Also, while cannabis (Indian hemp) was the first drug to attract the attention of professionals, many other substances have become part of the Nigerian drug scene today. For example, since the early 1980s the abuse of cocaine and heroin has become a serious health problem among adolescents and young adults in large urban areas.

The single most important motivation for compiling this bibliography is to show the kind of research and thinking that has gone into clarifying the role of drugs in the Nigerian society and, therefore, guide and encourage a more systematic inquiry into the problem. Great effort was put into the search for materials. An extensive literature survey was conducted using available databases, e.g., Medline, Psychlnfo, PAIS and ERIC. We visited many libraries, contacted researchers in the field for their lists of publications, and sought information from organizations engaged in drug abuse control in Nigeria. At the centre of the search we were able to locate the materials listed in this volume from a variety of sources. Most of the articles were published in scientific journals, some of which have ceased to exist or are of very limited circulation. We have also included summaries of papers presented at conferences in cases where edited proceedings were published.

In spite of all efforts to be comprehensive we suspect that some relevant materials have been left out. Such materials will be included in the next volume of this bibliography. Therefore, we encourage users of this volume to bring to our attention omissions and incorrect information.
We also request researchers to send to us copies of their publications for inclusion in the next volume. Each reference in this bibliography contains enough information for the user to locate the document. Most of the abstracts were taken directly from journals or databases. Others were
summaries prepared by us. The listings are dune in compliance with the style manual of the American Psychological Association. For example, journal listings begin with authors, followed by year of publication, title of paper, name of journal (with volume, issue and page numbers), and the abstract. Listings for materials from proceedings carry all necessary information needed to locate both the book and the article.

The bibliography has been divided into four sections to make the search for references easy. Section A is a numerical listing of the abstracts under seven topics. For each topic, abstracts are arranged in alphabetical order by author. Because many articles address more than one issue, the numbers of other abstracts which are related to a particular topic are listed at the end of the listings for that topic in order to make cross referencing a bit easier.

In Section B (Author Index) users can search the bibliography by name of author. Section C (Subject Index) extends the search option further by making it possible for the user to search directly for references on any subject in the bibliography. For example, a user who is looking for
articles on the epidemiology of alcohol abuse may find references under epidemiology or alcohol using the subject index. The location of relevant abstracts may be under one or more topics in Section A. Section D (Source Index) makes it possible to search for articles published in a particular
journal. The journals are listed in alphabetical order with page numbers after each entry.

It is my genuine hope that this bibliography will be a useful tool for researchers, students, policy makers, health care practitioners and all those working on any aspect of the drug problem in Nigeria.

Isidore Silas Obot, PhD, MPH.
Executive Director,
Centre for Research and Information on Substance Abuse (CRISA).

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