Cannabis Normalization Among Young Adults in a Nigerian City

• Author: Emeka W. Dumbili
• Published date: 01 July 2020
• Date: 01 July 2020
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0022042620912805
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0022042620912805

Journal of Drug Issues

2020, Vol. 50(3) 286 –302

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/0022042620912805

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Article

Cannabis Normalization Among

Young Adults in a Nigerian City

Emeka W. Dumbili1,2,3

Abstract

Drug normalization has been researched extensively in the West. Yet, we know little about

how drug use is normalized in non-Western contexts. Drawing on interviews with young

adults, this study is the first to explore illicit drug normalization in Nigeria. Cannabis was widely

available and easy to access and students were part of the supply chain. Citing therapeutic and

functional benefits, participants normalized cannabis consumption, using it to prepare soup,

noodles, and birthday cakes. Unlike women, who may give up cannabis use due to stigmatization

and marriage, men had no plans to stop its use. Gender determined drug-taking practices and

social accommodation of drug users, suggesting differentiated normalization. Men who used

cannabis were accommodated by their peers, unlike women, who were stigmatized by female

non-users. In general, the findings highlight a shift in illicit drug use practices and noticeable

gendered and differentiated social accommodation among peers, although cultural acceptance

of illegal recreational drugs remains at the margin.

Keywords

cannabis, drug, normalization, Nigeria, young adults

Introduction

Drug Normalization

The study aims to explore the normalization of illicit drugs in a Nigerian city. The normalization

concept was initially used by Wolfensberger (1972) to indicate how normal conditions of living

are provided for humans with learning disabilities. Drug researchers adopted the concept follow-

ing Measham et al.’s (1994) longitudinal study of young people’s recreational drug use in North-

West England. According to Parker (2005), normalization points to the ways in which “illicit

drugs consumption, particularly by conventional ‘ordinary’ young people, has grown in impor-

tance within lifestyles which are themselves evolving in response to structural and global changes

in post-modern societies” (p. 206). What the proponents of the thesis (e.g., Measham et al., 1994;

Parker et al., 1998) argued is that the use of illicit drugs for recreational purposes has become a

prominent feature of young people’s lives in their pursuit of pleasure and leisure.

1Institute for Therapy and Health Research, Kiel, Germany

2Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria

3Brunel University London, Uxbridge, UK

Corresponding Author:

Emeka W. Dumbili, Institute for Therapy and Health Research, Harmsstraße 2, 24114 Kiel, Germany.

Emails: ew.dumbili@unizik.edu.ng; emeka.dumbili@gmail.com; dumbili@ift-nord.de

912805JODXXX10.1177/0022042620912805Journal of Drug IssuesDumbili

research-article2020

Dumbili 287

Drug normalization is the process by which illegal drugs are accepted as an integral part of

young people’s leisure and “normal” life. While describing the data from their longitudinal study,

Parker (2005) noted that young people obtained drugs from their friends or their friends’ friends,

and some of these supplies were made based on favors and not for profit. Although not every

young person consumed drugs during the period, the normalization thesis was adopted, Parker

et al. (1998) noted that in the future those who do not use illicit drugs will be in the minority in

England. The normalization protagonists also provided the thesis’ dimensions, which include

“drug availability/access or offers; drug trying or lifetime prevalence; current usage and intended

future use; being ‘drug-wise’, and social accommodation/cultural acceptance” of drugs (Measham

& Shiner, 2009, p. 503; Parker, 2005).

Following Parker et al. (1998), Shildrick (2002) states that the “normalization thesis best

describes the processes and changes that have produced a situation where young people embrace

drug use as an integral aspect of their leisure and cultural landscape.” Hence, illicit substances

are no longer considered to belong to the “unknown, deviant and unorthodox world” that most

youths are unaware of, but have instead, “become a normal part” of their lifestyles (Shildrick,

2002, p. 39). Drug normalization is mainly a factor of growth in social or recreational drug use

prevalence (Van Hout, 2011). Normalization focuses on continuity and change in drug con-

sumption (Measham & Shiner, 2009), and, as Parker (2005) indicated, it is a useful “conceptual

framework to monitor . . . how attitudes and behaviour in respect of illegal drugs and drug users

change through time” (p. 206). Normalization not only considers the rising tendency of young

people to use drugs, it also deals with the fact that some young people are more sensible (“drug-

wise”) recreational drug takers (Parker et al., 1998, p. 157). As Parker and colleagues noted, this

is because most young people possessed a broad knowledge of various illicit drugs (Parker

et al., 2002).

One significant factor that steers the normalization of recreational drug use is their availability

due to the growing drug market and other factors such as globalization (Hunt, 2001; Moyle,

2019; Parker, 2005). In the United Kingdom, Shildrick (2002) stated that the increase in drug

availability and the low price facilitated easy access and high consumption rates. A more recent

study among supposedly conservative Bangladeshi and Pakistani youths revealed that cannabis

was normalized among them, and drug availability was implicated (Williams et al., 2017).

Another essential dimension of the normalization thesis is the social accommodation of recre-

ational drug consumption (Parker, 2005). That is, “sensible, occasional, recreational drug users,

particularly users of cannabis, were condoned rather than condemned” by peers (Parker et al.,

2002, p. 943). Parker (2005) noted that although the attitudes and behavior of older people toward

illicit drug use are changing, the normalization thesis primarily focuses on the social accommo-

dation of illicit drug use by younger people (users and abstainers). This is why Van Hout (2011)

reported that the social accommodation of drug use among peers predicted drug normalization by

Irish youths.

Another aspect of normalization that determines increased experimentation with drugs is drug

offers (Parker, 2005). In Canada, for instance, Bouchard et al. (2018) found that 40% of their

participants (15-year-old students) had been offered cannabis and 25% had accepted the offer in

the first instance, mainly because a close ally had made it. Indeed, research has shown that having

friends who use cannabis increases the chances of being offered the substance (Burdzovic

Andreas & Pape, 2015).

Given the growth in drug trying and regular recreational use, and the social and cultural

accommodation of illicit drugs, Parker (2005) suggested another dimension of normalization-

“state responses in legislation and ‘anti’-drug strategies,” especially because of the changes in

government policy in tackling drug use in England (p. 206). In this light, Parker and colleagues

cited the relevance of normalization to government policies on drugs, noting that the thesis will

not work “for societies which maintain and enforce blanket prohibition of all popular illicit drugs