Young people’s experiences with initiation and socialization to drug and substance use in Kabarwa Sub-county, Bukedea District

Abstract

Drug use among young people is one of most fast-rising phenomena that has caught the attention of various stakeholders all over the world because it affects young people drastically. However, much as studies have been conducted in various aspects of drug and substance abuse all of the world, it remains a common gap that in Sub-Saharan Africa and Uganda in particular, there have been little efforts to study about the experiences of young people as they are socialized and initiated into drug and substance use and how this experience influence their drug use patterns over time. In this dissertation, I examine young peoples’ socialization and initiation to drug and substance use and how those experiences influence their drug use patterns taking the case of Kabarwa Sub-County, Bukedea District. Data was collected in Feb, 2025 through in depths interviews with thirteen participants who were actively using drugs and a focus group discussion with five participants who were actively using drugs and substances. From the discussion with respondents, most of them revealed that their socialization and initiation was born out of multifaceted factors like peer pressure, history of family drug use and broken family ties, personal adversities like expulsion from school, socio-environmental factors like growing up in homes where alcohol is brewed and sold, marijuana is cultivated and smoked, drug use is normalized. Respondents also highlighted their places of first use of drugs like bars, school, and informal hang out points, with their most commonly used drugs being Alcohol, cigarettes, marijuana, mijaj and Kuber. Many of them revealed that they experienced just strange experiences in their first time of use like some fainted, feeling thirst, eyes becoming blurry, vomiting and sweating. Many of them also indicated that the use of these drugs was good though it had some consequences. They also highlighted that in most of their quests to seek for help to end the use of drugs, they often failed to get the needed help and thus suggested that the only way they can be helped is through; giving them their freedom, establishing for them small scale businesses, putting them in savings groups, offering vocational or skills training, and connecting some of them to employment opportunities in order to keep them productive and live meaningful lives. Based on the results of the study, I recommend that young people develop alternative ways to deal with life stressors, seek for help, while families provide supportive and nurturing environments, governments and NGOs design and support responsive programs, provide funding and do more research in order to better respond to the problem of drug and substance use.