HARD DRUG USE AMONG YOUTHS AND CULT VIOLENCE IN YENAGOA METROPOLIS, BAYELSA STATE - NIGERIA

The purpose of this work therefore was to examine factors that are responsible for hard drugs use among youths and how it has help in the rise of cult violence in Yenagoa metropolis of Bayelsa state, Nigeria. There are three competing theories for our theoretical framework- Routine activity theory (RAT), Rational choice theory (RCT) and Situational action theory (SAT), but we adopted the later. The study adopted the descriptive research design to survey 482,462 populations of Yenagoa metropolis, using the Taro- Yamane formula to draw a sample size of 400; purposive sampling technique was used in the study. The major instruments used in generating data for this study were questionnaire, observation and interview. The structured questionnaire titled: “Hard drugs use among youths and cultism in Yenagoa metropolis, Bayelsa state- Nigeria” (HDUAYACVIYMBSNQ). The collected data were analysed using the simple percentage and Chi-square (x2) statistical tool to test the various hypotheses. The study findings are as follows: (i)That there is a relationship between hard drugs used and increase in cult violence in the study area. (ii) That the more tramadol is used the more cultism will be on the rise and, (iii) That when tramadol is easily accessible to the youths, it influences violent behavior of the cultists in the study area Based on the above, the following recommendations were made: (i) that there is a need to fight against hard drugs use among youths (ii) that public enlightenment campaigns should be encouraged against the dangers of hard drugs use and cultism (iii) that there is need for parental discipline at home (iv) the need for religious discipline (v) that this research be extended to other geo-political zones and the scope broaden, deepened and widened. A number of references were finally made for further review.