Believe it or not there are severe drug problems on the continent of Africa. As a counselor for both in-class and online drug classes my students and I often discuss drug issues throughout the world. They are quite often surprised by the serious drug issues plaguing Africa. It is more than just lions, tigers, elephants and zebras.
Many start using drugs, then selling drugs, and then becoming addicted to drugs. Some begin using as early as age seven. As reported in www.aljazeera.com.
The drug of choice in Sierra Leone is heroin, with freebased cocaine a close second. When hard drugs were not available, they turn to marijuana, alcohol, amphetamines, or prescription pills - anything, really. There is a growing number of African youth that are living a life of complete addiction, being stoned virtually every waking hour.
Substance abuse has long been a problem for the impoverished West African country. Throughout the 1990s, a civil war gained international notoriety for the role played by drug-fuelled teenagers, who committed atrocities and launched an anarchic attack on the capital. The effects of marijuana, alcohol, and amphetamines contributed to the violence.
In recent years, harder drugs - cocaine and, to a lesser extent, heroin - have become increasingly available. Part of the blame is that this Western African nation is in the center of the transit route for much of the world’s drug trade.
I would like to see the government step it up and begin mandatory alcohol drug classes for youth. It is imperative they understand the ramifications of early experimentation and use and decide never to start in the first place.