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ABSTRACT
Illicit drug use is a persistent health problem among Nigerian youths. Social media platforms currently facilitate online illicit drug markets in the sub-Saharan Africa state. The current qualitative study investigates the influence of social media platforms on the sale and use of illicit drugs among undergraduates in selected tertiary institutions in Lagos State, Nigeria. Thirty undergraduate students completed semi-structured interviews sharing their experiences with purchasing illicit drugs through social media platforms. Researchers analysed data using thematic content analysis. Participants mean age was 26.33 years (SD=5.13). Findings show that online drug accessibility is technical but easy with links from friends. The process is organized with the aid of online commerce. The commonly used social media networks were Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and WhatsApp, while delivery is done with motorcycles, bicycles, and walking across the street without law enforcement agents being able to track them. However, there exist the possibility of victimisation both from vendors and platform administrators, because of the illegality. How social media owners and youth stakeholders will control these channels to impede criminal activities remains a challenge.
Keywords: Social media, illicit drug, accessibility, illegal, friends, deviant behaviour
INTRODUCTION
The illicit drug use epidemic
Illicit drug abuse is a major problem for every society and the menace has been steadily growing, particularly in developing countries. Illicit drug refers to the highly addictive and illegal substances such as opioids (including heroin), marijuana, cannabis, cocaine, and methamphetamine (Degenhardt, Whiteford, Ferrari, Baxter, Charlson, et al, 2013). Findings from the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 found that the global burden of illness due to illicit drug use increased by 52 percent between 1990 and 2010 (Degenhardt et al, 2013). In 2015, about 5.3 percent of the global population used illegal substances (World Health Organization, 2018). Illicit drug use has destroyed lives and continues to endanger the health, social and mental stability of many young people in West-African countries, particularly in Nigeria, Ghana and Sierra Leone where the use of cannabis has increased in recent decades (Klein, 1999; Ellis, 2009). The first-ever, large scale national survey on drug use in Nigeria has revealed that nearly 15 percent of the adult population (about 14.3 million people) use psychoactive drug substances, at a rate much higher than the 2015 global...