Drug and substance abuse in youth involves drinking alcohol, smoking cigarette and bhang, consuming illegal drugs and using drugs for non-medical purposes.

Abusing drugs is often the route followed by youth. They consume alcohol which leads to problems of the mouth, oesophagus, stomach and pancreas, cirrhosis of the liver, malnutrition and vitamin deficiency; psychological conditions, such as delirium and dementia and addiction to other drugs. Drug abuse also leads to personality effects and hallucinations and/or delusions among other problems.

We believe the youth have many reasons to indulge in drug abuse. They may want to deal with personal or family issues, social issues with other people and friends, poor performance in school and eventually in society or a desire for new experiences through peer pressure or inner urges. They naturally want to explore the world around them and create their own paradise and this leads to unnecessary risks and danger most of the time.

Ayepo creates mental awareness to the youths to empower them to be mentally stable so that they are able to make decisions to overcome youthful deceptions about drugs and drug abuse. We empower them to understand who they are and their value. We help them build self-esteem and believe that they can overcome the problem. We do this through life-skills training where we take them through goal setting and decision making skills, helping them to have self-control power to say NO to drug abuse. Drug and substance addictons can only be overcome when our youths are mentally stable.