‘I take it to relax… and chill’: perspectives on cannabis use from marginalized Nigerian young adults

Abstract

Background Current research on drug use emphasizes harms and often neglects its pleasures and benefits. This one-sided view has supported policies that criminalize personal drug use. This study explores nuanced understandings of cannabis use from the perspectives of marginalized users in Nigeria. Methods This study is based on qualitative research conducted with street-involved young adults (n = 97) recruited through time-location sampling in Uyo, Akwa Ibom State in Nigeria. Data were collected through in-depth, individual interviews, transcribed, coded and analyzed thematically. Results Cannabis offered corporeal and social pleasures, which were shaped by the socio-spatial context of use. It was also used in marginalized ways to relieve social stress, cope with trauma, enable daily functioning, and everyday survival struggle. This encouraged heavy use, which produced health harms including dependence as well as physical and mental health problems. Social and legal harms were of more concern to the participants than health ones. Unlawful policing practices, including physical abuses and financial extortion, exacerbated the health and social harms of structural violence they experience. Conclusions Cannabis use is a more nuanced practice than is captured in the dominant medico-legal discourse. Harms owe more to the socio-legal contexts of use than to the drug’s pharmacology. Reducing harms requires the provision of healthcare services and structural interventions, not criminalizing a population already situated on the margins of a resource-poor society.