Voices from ‘Igbo Bunks’: A qualitative study of the complicity of law-enforcement agents in marijuana use in a Nigerian community

“When I Take Drugs, I Don’t Care”: Insights into the Operational Dynamics of Male Violent Offenders in a Correctional Centre

“…Our choice of purposively recruiting and studying this particular population of inmates is premised on the argument of Otu et al (2018b), who stated that understanding perpetrators’ perspective is of salient importance if researchers are to gain a balanced view of violent crime, and that sampling the opinions of the main actors is particularly helpful in solving that particular social problem and other related problems. Nnam et al (2020a, p. 5) further corroborated our justification for adopting this sampling strategy when they alluded that drug using violent offenders are better sample, since “they have prior knowledge of the subject, location and phenomenon under study and, for this reason, stand a better chance (more than any other population) of providing us with sufficient, relevant and reliable information and data needed for this study.”…”

“…Some studies have found that people Who Inject Drugs (PWID), particularly the homeless, have frequent contacts with law enforcement agents/agencies and are subject to routine imprisonment and violence (Markwick et al, 2015; Nelson & Nnam, 2020). Citing UNODC (2013, 2018a), Nnam et al (2020a, p. 2) revealed that the “drug situation in Nigeria which has led to increased law enforcement efforts and greater political commitment to control drugs. In the national or home front, for instance, 847.46 hectare of cannabis plantations nationwide were discovered and destroyed in 2013.” A survey conducted by the UNODC (2018b) showed that “an estimated 10.8% of the population or 10.6 million people, had used cannabis in the past year; and the average age of initiation of cannabis use among the general population was 19 years” (p. 12).…”

“…the lifetime prevalence rate of cannabis use among sex offenders was 37.1% while it was 5.7% among non-sexual offenders" (Adayonfo & Akanni, 2019, p. 04). The problem of illicit drug use, its casual relationships with crime and violence, and eventual arrest and incarceration of its users, is on the increase (see Arbach-Lucioni et al, 2012;Friedmann et al, 2008;Nnam et al, 2020a;UNODC, 2013UNODC, , 2015UNODC, , 2018aUNODC, , 2018bWorld Health Organisation [WHO], 2010). Take for instance, the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) identified three offenses associated with drug use.…”

“…Scholars and researchers have been searching for suitable pathways to understanding the complexities of drug use and its direct or indirect association with crime and violence, with each researcher approaching the problem from their own unique perspectives (e.g., Adayonfo & Akanni, 2019;Belenko & Spohn, 2015;Deitch et al, 2015;Link & Hamilton, 2017;Mamman et al, 2014;Nnam et al, 2018;Nyameh et al, 2013;Philips, 2012;Romm & Metzger, 2018). Difficulty in identifying the nature of the relationship between drug use and crime-be it correlational or causal (i.e., does drug use lead to crime, or does crime lead to drug use)-is one reason that the drugcrime nexus is still contested in the social science literature, as evidenced by the large volume of literature on the topic currently available (see Goldstein, 1985;Gottfredson et al, 2008;Nelson & Nnam, 2020;Nnam et al, 2018Nnam et al, , 2020aPhilips, 2012). The current study is not actually trying to explore or measure these variables, as it were.…”

Contextual influences of illicit adolescent marijuana cultivation and trading in the Inqguza Hill local municipality of South Africa: implications for public health policy

“…However, it is evident from our findings that law enforcement on supply reduction for marijuana is minimal in IHLM. This could be as a result of the complicity of bylaw enforcement agents in illicit drug networks for financial gain on the African continent in general [ 74 ], considering the high level of corruption reported among the SAPS [ 75 , 76 ].…”