UNDERSTANDING PULL FACTORS OF DRUG USE AMONG UPPER BASIC SCHOOL STUDENTS: A PATHWAY FOR HUMAN CAPITAL DEVELOPMENT

Th e study investigated the understanding of the pull factors of drug use among upper basic school students: a pathway to human capital development. Th e study adopted a qualitative form survey design. Th e population for the study were public upper basic schools in three Area of Ilorin metropolis. Th e target population were the upper basic seven, eighth and nine (J.S.S I, II, and III) students that use drugs. A sample size of 9 secondary schools was purposively sampled. Twenty-one basic school students' drug users were sampled through snowballing simple technique. Th e study applied a qualitative method using an open-ended interview approach developed by the researcher. Th e thematic data analysis technique was used to analyze the interview data retrieved from the participants. qualitative computer data analysis soft ware (NVIVO 10) was used to analyze the data. Results revealed Alcohol, cigarettes, caff eine, inhalants, methadone, tramadol, codeine, morphine, cannabis or marijuana, opiates, heroin ‘EJA’, JEDI’, and cocaine among others. Parental easy access, peer infl uence, and experimental curiosity were some of the pull factors, while increased enlightenment, parental role, and limited access to the drug are some of the measures drug users need to quit drugs.


Introduction
Drug use and abuse among Nigeria's populace cut across all categories of population, as it includes both the dependent to independent. e dependent category is subdivided into two groups. e rst group are those under the ages of zero to 14, who are under the custodian of their parents or guardians while the second group are those over the age of 65 that have retired from active service and are now dependent on the working class.
e independent population are those under the ages of 15 to 65, who are also referred to as the active population. e rst dependent population group are characterized by total reliance on parents for access to basic needs of life which are food, cloth and shelter. It also includes parental control such as loyalty to parents and those in authority, and obedience to the rules and regulations of the family as well as that of society. Another feature is that they are the school-going age. us, they undergo training in the form of education both at home and in school.
Informal training in the form of moral education is given at home while the school provides formal training required for life survival and contributing meaningfully to the development of their society. Education is the backbone of the development of any nation, as it is capable of improving the quality of society through the re nement of its potential. Education enhances the application of man's achievement towards the improvement of his environment (OECD, 2020). e role of education, therefore, cannot be ruled out in the quest for the human capital development of any nation. e issue of drug use and abuse is a well-known phenomenon among secondary school students in major cities in Nigeria, which include Kano, Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, Ilorin, Ibadan, and Katsina. It has gained public condemnation by all and sundry the federal, state and local governments through the mass media. According to Okoye, (2001) drug users are at risk in their academic and career development. Drugs create vivid distortion in the sense of the users' consciousness ( Inciardi, Horowitz, & Pottierger, 2011 and adults (the working population or independent population) that are mostly found in tertiary institutions, or mostly working-class adults.
Cases of drug use and abuse have been witnessed by young people in senior secondary school over the years, but recently, it has extended to junior secondary school level (Upper basic school) to also be involved in drug use. A drug is a substance that can be taken into the human body and, once taken, alters some processes within the body. Drugs can be used in the diagnosis, prevention, or treatment of a disease ( Okoye, 2001). It is also considered a substance that modi es perceptions, cognition, mood, behaviour and general body functions ( Balogun, 2013). ese could thus, be considered chemical modi ers of the living tissues that could bring about psychological and behavioural changes ( Nnachi, 2007 Board in 2021 was posted to one of the public schools in the Ilorin metropolis. e teacher was handling basic seven (Junior secondary class 1) in civic education, a er the explanation of the concepts, and summary notes on the chalkboard. e teacher noticed that some particular group of three male students were not writing, and upon moving close to inquire why they were not writing. It was discovered that they had just taken Igbo also known as Indian hemp, other names including marijuana, grass, weed, joint, stone, pot, ganga, hashish, bhang, sinsemilla and morocco and they were unsettled to pick anything from the teachers' lesson or even copy the summary note on the chalkboard. When they were taken out of the class for proper investigation, other class members told the teacher that, it has been their habit and that other teachers are already aware of their case. is happened in a basic seven class that is the rst year in secondary school, among students of 10 -13 years, these students are already taking hard drugs. Drug use and abuse can also damage brain cells and make the brain shrink, thus resulting in organic brain damage ( Ejikeme, 2010). Drugs such as stimulants activate the central nervous system, which results in restlessness, nervousness, increased aggressiveness, and anxiety that may be beyond the control of the user ( Lahey, 2004). Many researchers have also agreed that emotional breakdown and inability to control oneself as a result of drug use and abuse are associated with inner-city crises, crime, and youth violence which is negative to human capital development ( Klantschnig, 2013).
Despite all these and many negative e ects of the drug on its users, the rate of involvement among students is still on the increase. Several studies have been carried out on drug and drug abuse among secondary school students Methodology e study adopted a qualitative form of survey design as the study used open-ended questions to produce results. e population for the study were the public upper basic school students in Ilorin metropolis. Ilorin Metropolis comprises of Ilorin East, West and South Local government areas. e target population were the upper basic school students that use drugs in three areas of Ilorin metropolis (Okelele, Adeta and Gaa-Akanbi areas). Twenty-one drug users from nine public upper basic schools were purposively selected using a snowballing sampling technique. is is in line with Sambo (2010) who maintains that a researcher can choose a sample if it meets the researchers' characteristics of interest. A snowball-sampling approach is a sampling method used by researchers to generate a pool of participants for a research study through referrals made by individuals who share a particular characteristic of research interest with the target population. In this regard a teacher identi es a current drug user who then helped to identify others. e characteristics of the sample were current upper basic school drug users with no history of treatment, aged 10-15 years, having used illegal drugs during the past 90 days for upper basic seven (Junior School 1), and one year for upper basic eight (Junior school 2) and two years for upper basic nine (Junior school 3). level they are into a drug, what could be the pull factors for students in the upper basic (Junior Secondary school) to take to the use of drugs?
Many researchers such as Adeoti (2010), and Oluremi (2012)  Antisocial norms, poor informal social controls, lack of social cohesion, disconnectedness, and lack of social capital. Con ict/war, social exclusion, inequality, discrimination. And physical environments such as Decay: abandoned buildings, and substandard housing. Neighbourhood disorder, Access to alcohol, tobacco, other drugs, rearms, Lack of access to nutritious foods, Exposure to toxins, and Media. Similarly, research with a focus on young people has sought to identify motives for illicit drug use. It was evident that their decision to use a drug is based on a rational appraisal process, rather than a passive reaction to the context in which a substance is available ( Boys et al.2014). is study investigated understanding the pull factors that in uenced children of upper basic schools into taking to the use of the drug to understand develop youth that can contribute to national development. Figure 1. emes and sub-themes of the pull factors of drug use among upper basic school students e study investigated the understanding of pull factors responsible for drug use among upper basic school Students as a pathway for human capital development. e thematic approach allows the analysis to be presented in themes, sub-themes and sub-sub-themes as well as in graphical models through which the perspectives and the actual words of the 21 participants were systematically presented. e main aim of this paper is to investigate the understanding of pull factors responsible for drug use among upper basic school Students to establish the pathway for human capital development. Given this, the study discovered the common drugs used by upper basic school students in the Ilorin metropolis, the pull factors responsible for upper basic school students' use of drugs and the possibility of upper basic school students stopping the use of the drug. e emerged sub-themes and sub-sub-themes representing the perceptions of the students are visualized in Figure 1. e study applied a qualitative method using an open-ended interview approach developed by the researcher. e interview has two sections A and B. Section A consists Biodata information of the participants while section B comprised four questions which are (i) what are the types of drug use? (ii) please give ve reasons why you are into drug use. (iii) Are you ready to quit? And (iv) how can we help you quit? e instrument was validated by experts in educational Research, measurement and evaluation unit of the Department of Social Sciences Education, University of Ilorin. e interview was personally conducted by the researcher. It was a oneon-one interview, the recording was made using a recording device a er permission of such had been granted by the participants. Transcription was made using thematic coding. e researcher followed (Creswell, 2012) guidelines to carry out data analysis stages. However, the use of qualitative computer data analysis so ware (NVIVO 10) was adopted. According to Creswell (2012), it is used to facilitate the process of storing, sorting, coding, analyzing and perpetration of representation of the data.

Results
To protect the con dentiality of the participants the study used a pseudonym to report the perceptions of the participants in line with the advice of ( McCann & Clark, 2003). As noted by Creswell (2009), the researcher must be mindful of how to protect the anonymity of individuals, roles and incidents in the research through the use of pseudonyms for both individuals and places of data collection sometimes. 018, 019, and 021, 'MA RIJUANA' which is categorized under illegal drugs, was what he used most times. Finally, under illegal drugs, participants 003, 006, 007, 012, 014, and 020, con rmed that the drug named 'SK (SKUNK)' is their preferred drug to them. In the categorization of st imulants such as methamphetamines, cocaine and hallucinogens, participant 001,007 and 008 were the few ones taking the drug named ' AL EKO (MANPOWER)' . Lastly, it was revealed that 17 participants were users of more than one drug, and the remaining four participants were users of only one drug.

Research Question Two:
What are the pull factors responsible for upper basic school students' use of drugs?  Figure 3, revealed that parental neglect was very vital as a pull factor responsible for the use and abuse of drugs, this was evident in the con rmation of the participants, particularly, 001, 002, 004, 006, 008, 011, 012, 013, 014, 015, 017, 018 and 019. ese participants face parental neglect, their parents were not always around to monitor them a er school which gave them the opportunity of taking to the use drug(s). Easy access to drugs in the community for the users was also a very strong pulling Research Question One: What are the common drugs used by upper basic school students in the Ilorin metropolis?

Common drugs used by upper basic school students in Ilorin metropolis
From the rst nding, the majority of the participants identi ed the illegal drugs, legal but over-the-counter drugs, legal but prescription drugs and stimulant drugs as the types they mostly used as shown in Figure 2. Based on the ndings, some of the participants, particularly, 002, 008, 011, 014, 020 and 021 and 006 con rmed that cigarette is their commonly used Vinhalants). Concerning sub-theme two, which is about the legal drugs being used, participants 004, 011, 014, 015, 017, and 019 disclosed that Trama and R2 is the drug being used (Le gal, prescription drugs such as Benzodiazepines, barbiturates, Methadone, oxycodone, Tramadol, codeine, Morphine etc. Meanwhile, concerning Il legal drugs such as cannabis or marijuana, opiates, heroin etc, all the participants revealed that they use them. For instance, participants 001, 002, 004, 005, 006, 007, 008, 009, 010, 012, 013, 014, 015, 016, 017, 018, 019, 020, and 021 con rmed their usage of the il legal drug referred to as 'EJA' . From the perspectives of the participants 001, 006, 007,009,011,016 and 018 the illegal drug called 'JE DI' was what they used mostly. However, to participants 002, 005, 016, 017, e possibility of the participants stopping the use of the drug, which is changing from drug user /abuser to non-user is very high. All the participants gave a positive response by con rming that they are ready to stop. Since they all are ready to stop, how do they want to be helped to quit the drug, was the next research question.

Research Question 4:
How can upper basic school students who use drugs be helped to quit? Figure 5: measures to help drug users to quit drug Results from the participants indicated that their parents have a vital role to play in helping them quit the drug, this was a rmed by all the participants. On the point of, accessibility to drugs in the environment, 20 out of the 21 participants con rmed that the sales of the drug should be banned from the environment. Another point raised regarding measure to take in helping participants to quit drug is that more enlightenment programme on the danger of drugs is required. Participants all the participants attested to this. While the last point raised was there is a need for drug users to disassociate themselves from the company of bad friends who will continue to in uence them into the act of using drugs. factor why the participants were into the use and abuse of drug(s), from the result all the participants that are from 001 to 021 con rmed that drugs readily accessible to them to buy any time, which makes it easy for them to use. e factor of the school environment as a place for motivating the use and abuse of the drug was pointed out by only participants 002, 005 and 009 implications all other participant did not consider their school environment as a pull factor. Peer in uence, that is the in uence of friends and playmates as a pull factor for the use and abuse of drug(s) was con rmed by almost all the participants except only participant 006.

Pathway
is implies that peer in uence is another strong force. On the factors of a spiritual spell, only three participants: 001, 011 and 016 gave spiritual spells cast by a stepmother and grandmother as to why they took to the drug was used. Experimental curiosity was con rmed by participants 007, 017, 020 and 021 among other pull factors, as responsible for their choice of use of the drug. Meaning that they only wanted to ful l his curiosity and it became a habit. e residential location of parents was disclosed as a reason for the use of the drug by participants 001, 003, 004, 005, 008, 009, 010, 011, 012, 014, 015, 016 and 017. Most of the parents are residing in a drug-prone area, where their wards are easily exposed to the danger of drugs because many people around them are into it. Lastly, participants 001, 005, 006, 009, 013, 018, and 019 attested to the fact that their parents are also involved in the use of the drug, many con rmed their father taking alcohol and cigarettes, thus, parental involvement was also a vital pull factor among others.

Research Question 3:
Are the upper basic school students who use drugs want to quit? Children who lack parental attention will associate with any type of friend, and most of the time it is always the bad ones that can in uence them negatively. is was the situation upper basic school students nd themselves in, the majority of them were lured into the use of the drug by their friends. From the report of the interviews, these friends were majorly around their neighbourhood and school, some are much older but they became friends because they share the same feature. ese ndings are in tune with the ndings of Adeoti (2010); Oluremi (2012) and Mackenzie, Annette, Jennifer and Mark (2013) who gave the causes of drug use and abuse among secondary school students and young adults as experimental curiosity, peer in uence, poor parental supervision, personality problems due to socio-economic conditions, the need for energy to work for long hours, availability of the drugs in the society, and the need to prevent the occurrence of withdrawal. ey also highlighted parental neglect, peer relationships, and popularity/gang a liation.

Possibility of upper basic school students stopping the use of drugs
It was a unanimous decision of the participants from the study that, they are ready to quit drug(s). is is because they are aware of the danger that drug use and abuse pose to them as an individual, family, the community where they live, their nation and the world at large. But what measures can be taken to quit drugs becomes an issue? By quitting drugs these students stand the opportunity of acquiring the knowledge and skill needed to contribute positively to national development. ey stand a chance of becoming an asset to national development.
Lastly, measures such as good parenting are required as pointed out by the participants. It was revealed that most of the students got into drugs because of the neglect, abandonment, nonchalant and uninvolved attitudes of their parents. It was suggested by these students that, their parents need to give them attention, they need close and good monitoring, and they need a good and conducive home environment. ey needed parents who can understand them any time they are having issues in school. A parent who can always provide them with advice on the kind of peers to keep and associate with. ey also con rmed that they needed parents who will not also use the drug since some take to the drug because they see their parents as a model. ey needed parents who will provide them with the basic needs of life.

Discu ssion
Findings from the study revealed that upper basic school students with an age range of 11 to 15 years and within the school year of one and three who are male are found to be drug users and dependent. is category of students is considered by society as the leaders of the next generation, who will be well trained in the act and skills required to manage the a airs of the nation economically, politically, technologically, and socially. ese students have taken to the use and abuse of drugs of di erent types as revealed by the study. Drugs such as Legal, over-the-counter drugs such as: (Alcohol, cigarettes, ca eine, and inhalants). Legal, prescribed drugs such as Benzodiazepines, barbiturates, methadone, tramadol, codeine, morphine etc. Illegal drugs such as cannabis or marijuana, opiates, heroin etc. Also, an illegal drug with the street name 'EJA' , JEDI' , MARIJUANA, SK (Skunk). ey also use Stimulants, like cocaine and ALEKO (MANPOWER). is nding corroborated that of Abdulkarim, Mokuolu, & Adeniyi (2005), and the statistical report of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (2017) that tramadol, opiate, cannabis, amphetamines, barbiturate, benzodiazepines (Valium), and bromazepam (Lexotan) were commonly used and abused drugs among secondary students and youth in La a. e second nding on what contributed pull factors to why upper basic school students are into the use of drugs revealed that the parents of the respondents constituted one of the major pull factors. eir children (the respondents) con rmed that they are always not available at home to spend quality time in the upbringing of their children. ey are always out of the house to seek economic means of survival. Due to their constant absence, the children are free to do whatsoever they like and wanted. Also, most parents' places of residence are porous and prone to dangers of di erent kinds, such as violence, gangs, drugs, and assault among others. is serves as an exposed root to the respondent's use of the drug. Also because of the location of the houses, access to the drug because so easy. Drugs were sold in all the nooks and cronies of the environment where the respondents reside. At times drugs were sold very close to the schools. To worsen the situation some of the parents of the respondents were drug users, due to this singular act, their children sees them as a model worthy of emulation and also took to the use of the drug. Also, the e ort of government at all levels is highly required to help in the control and sales of the drug in society, communities, the environment and in the Country generally. Government need to come up with sti er measures to clamp down on the sales of the drug in the environment. If drugs are no more in circulation and students can no longer see them everywhere, there is a very high tendency to quitting their use, as suggested by its users in this study. And lastly, enlightenment programmes through di erent means such as the mass and social media, schools, the establishment of clubs, guidance and counselling programmes, and billboard displays on the danger of drug use and abuse were recommended as a good measure. If they are reminded always of the danger it poses to health, and education in the form of their career, social and political life, they will be ready to quit its use. With all these measures in place, society will have drug-free youth, with a good level of intelligence, and stable emotions who will be ready to contribute positively to national development by teaching and training upper students in school to attain the needed skill for human capital development will be possible.

Conclusion and Recommendations
Upper basic students in the Ilorin metropolis constitute a vital group of the Nigerian population who can contribute meaningfully to the development of their society and the nation at large, only if they are given the quality knowledge and skills required for this task. e task of national development is dependent on students and youth that are independent of the drug. It is on this premise that the study recommends among others: a ere is a need to create awareness among parents about the drug culture in the metropolis, understand their responsibilities towards their children, and need to restrain their children. b. ere is a need to strengthen the institutions of government in charge of drug control to curb drug production and supply. And also provide an e ective check on drug use in the Metropolis. c. More enlightenment programmes should be embarked upon by the government at all levels, that is, local, state and federal.