Drug Addicts Perceptions on Psychoactive Substance Abuse Information: A Qualitative Case Study of Addicts in Sabon Gari Metropolitan Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria (Published)
The aim of this qualitative case study was to find out the types of psychoactive substance abuse information communicated to Drug Addicts from Sabon Gari metropolitan area of Kaduna State, Nigeria particularly in National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA)’s detention and rehabilitation centre. In order to achieve this goal, the researchers adopted qualitative research methodology to answer the research questions through Snowball sampling technique and face – to – face semi structured in-depth interview with 10 ex-rehabilitated Drug addicts in the case study. Findings of this study revealed that health information, religious information, financial information, school information and societal information were the types of psychoactive substance abuse information communicated to Drug addicts by NDLEA. Another findings of this study shows that Drug addicts perceived the information communicated to them by NDLEA positively as expected by the agency this is because there are instances in the data collected from them that indicates their confessions about the usefulness of the information. Furthermore, some of the Drug addicts abuse were of the belief that the information was irrelevant to them because, there are instances in the data collected that indicates Drug addicts’ complains about how NDLEA’s officers treat them during their arrest and how they perceive NDLEA as corrupt agency which literally leads to negative perception about the information. The researchers proposed some recommendations for practical intervention.
Keywords: Psychoactive substance abuse, health related information, psychoactive substance abuse information, qualitative case study, snowball sampling technique, thematic analysis