Substance use and abuse among prison inmates in Benue state, Nigeria

Abstract

Substance use and misuse is a serious problem that has pervaded and succeeded in penetrating almost all social institutions such as the work place, hospitals, schools etc. Its use and spread is commonly associated with availability. No matter how restrictive and secure an institution is, there is always every possibility of permissiveness as far as human factor is concerned. Therefore, this study examined the use and misuse of substances among prison inmates from medium prisons in 13enue State. One hundred and twenty eight (128) comprised of males and females participated in the survey. Their age ranged between 20 and 50 years with mean age and standard deviation of 27.5 and 13.17 respectively. A questionnaire measuring the use and abuse of substance was used to collect the data. The result indicated that 82.8 of the inmates use and abuse different kinds of substances for various psycho sociological reasons which include; relieving fatigue, alertness, dejection, depression and health purposes among others. It was recommended that special drug programme should be incorporated into prison activities in order to checkmate the abuse of drugs in prisons and the society at large.