Drug abuse: an out of school adolescent’s survival mechanism in the context of a turbulent economic landscape – some Zimbabwean perspectives

The aim of this article, can be summarised as the exploration of the Zimbabwean socio-economic dynamics as key drivers to the socio-pathological behaviour of drug abuse by youths. It unpacks the current Zimbabwean socio-economic landscape that have influenced the greater uptake of drugs and substances amongst adolescents. Zimbabwe’s per capita income in 2013 was a US$953 compared to US$981 in 1980 (Musewe, 2016: np). Life expectancy was 59-years of age in 1980 and was last measured at 49-years of age in 2010. Musewe (2016) further suggests that 80 percent of Zimbabwe’s population can be classified as poor with over 70 percent in the worst classification of being ‘absolutely poor’. The inability of economic growth to meet the needs of a ballooning urban population – which has 64 percent between the age of 18 and 35 and mostly unemployed – has given rise to a social pathology in which drug abuse has become a survival mechanism. Consequently, drug abuse pervasiveness is due to its status as an escape mechanism amongst both male and female out of school adolescents. The article relies on a desk review research methodology targeting different commissioned reports, newspaper articles and empirical research studies to explore the responses by various duty bearers, health and social welfare actors in this social pathological phenomena that has become embedded as a way of life in most Zimbabwean urban centres. Moreover, guided by Ungar’s moral panic theoretical framework, youths’ life worlds are explored by the article to analyse critical perspectives regarding pervasive Zimbabwean youth drug abuse. The article contends that social workers, as custodians of children in conflict with the law and youth offenders, are not proactive and robust enough to curb vices such as drug abuse and only compile reports for submission to courts when adolescents have committed drug induced offences. Again, youth centres located around the major urban and rural centres need to reflect and examine their methodologies with a view to roll out holistic guidance and counselling through edutainment approaches to youths so that they become familiar with the dangers of drug and substance abuse. Finally, pathways are offered on how best to involve youths in establishing an enabling environment to combat drug abuse in the context of economic instability. The article concludes by reflecting on possible approaches that can be applied by state and non-state actors, such as social workers in complementing their toolkit of tackling adolescents’ maladaptive behaviour.

openalex: W2580094090 mag: 2580094090