THE YOUTH, DRUG ABUSE AND ADDICTION; COUNSELLING IMPLICATIONS

Several United Nations (UN) entities, instruments and regional organizations have different definitions of youth, which the United Nations secretariat recognizes. Definition of youth perhaps changes with circumstances, especially with the changes in demographic, financial, economic and socio-cultural settings; however, the definition that uses 15-24 age cohort as youth fairly serves its statistical purposes for assessing the needs of the young people and providing guidelines for youth development. Drug as defined by World Health organization is ¿any substance that when taken into the living organism may modify one or more of its functions¿. (WHO 2018).Drug is any solid or liquid substance other than food which when taken into the body, it alters the physiological or neurological functions of the human body (Matthew 2021 unpublished). Drug may be defined as any chemical that can change, influence or modify the physiological functioning of human and animal body when used or applied. Ezurike (1992) as cited in Ordu (2012).