Stakeholders have identified rising unemployment, economic insecurity and structural inequality as key forces driving the growing use of heroin and tramadol among young people across Africa, warning that without urgent socio-economic reforms, substance abuse could erode the continent’s much-touted demographic advantage and deepen long-term development challenges.
The concerns were raised during the Toyin Falola Interviews aired on Sunday and chaired by Professor Toyin Falola. The panel brought together Professor Moruf Lanrewaju Adelekan, psychiatrist and former technical adviser at the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime; Ibiba Odili, retired Assistant Comptroller-General of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency; Dr. Martin Agwogie, founder of the Global Initiative on Substance Abuse (GISA); and Abdulmalik Yahya, General Secretary of the Young African Leaders Initiative in Abuja.
The session, streamed to over five million participants across more than 15 countries, examined the theme, “The Use of Drugs in Africa,” with panelists repeatedly returning to the intersection between economic deprivation, youth unemployment and rising substance use.
Providing an overview of drug consumption patterns across the continent, Falola traced the spread of heroin and tramadol use across multiple regions, noting how economic conditions shape both availability and demand.
“If you draw in countries like Mozambique, Kenya, and Tanzania, Niger, Ghana and Nigeria, you find the use of heroin and tramadol,” he observed. “Some are arguing that the use of heroin and tramadol is linked to unemployment.”
Falola explained that in several urban centres, the scale of substance use has gone beyond individual cases to become a public health emergency with visible social consequences.
“They also argue that it has become a health crisis in cities like Lagos, North Atlantic, Guinea Bissau, Nigeria where you find the heavy use of cocaine,” he said.
According to Falola, the evolving geography of drugs across Africa reflects increasingly clear regional patterns, with tramadol circulation prominent in West Africa, heroin trafficking linked to Indian Ocean routes in East Africa, and methamphetamine abuse concentrated in parts of Southern Africa. These patterns, he suggested, mirror broader economic, governance and labour-market realities.
Dr. Martin Agwogie reinforced the link between unemployment and substance abuse, situating the crisis within Africa’s demographic profile.
“Africa is a continent with 55 countries and estimated 1.3 billion people with about 60 per cent of the population below 25 years of age, making Africa the world’s youngest continent,” he said.
“This indeed places a high burden of substance abuse in Africa which is related to the youthful population among other factors such as inadequate parenting, high level of unemployment, poverty, and the availability, accessibility and affordability of substances due to weak border controls and local production of illegal substances.”
Agwogie warned that without intervention, the situation is likely to worsen significantly in the coming years. “You can imagine what the future looks like for Africa in terms of drug abuse and associated consequences,” he said, pointing to projections that indicate a 40 percent increase in drug use by 2030.
He added that substance use is beginning at increasingly younger ages, further compounding the crisis. “Close to five per cent of those accessing care between the ages of 10 to 14 years,” he noted, describing early initiation as a troubling sign of deepening vulnerability. Across treatment centres, cannabis, opioids—particularly heroin—non-medical tramadol use and methamphetamine dominate reported cases.
For Abdulmalik Yahya, unemployment and instability form the central backdrop to Africa’s rising heroin and tramadol crisis, particularly among young people navigating prolonged economic uncertainty.
“Young people between age 15 to 29 across Africa carry the heaviest burden,” he said. “Young people are the demography most affected by unemployment, instability and limited access to mental health support.”
Yahya cautioned against reducing the issue to sensational crime narratives or enforcement statistics. “Drug use in Africa is not simply a criminal issue, it is a public health issue, it is a youth issue, it is an unemployment issue, it is a trauma issue. Fundamentally, it is an issue woven around dignity.”
He noted that heroin and tramadol use has become especially widespread among young men, yet policy responses across many African countries remain focused on punishment rather than recovery.
“Many African countries still respond primarily through stigmatisation, arrest than with rehabilitation. Punishment is even more visible. At the family level, it is more about punishment than support,” he said.
“Addiction does not end because someone is punished. It ends because someone is supported.”
Drawing from personal experience working with young people, Yahya added, “Addiction is not really about morality; it is often a collision between vulnerability and availability.”
Ibiba Odili connected youth drug use to broader developmental pressures facing African families, warning that economic stress weakens traditional protective structures.
“Statistics show that the drug abuse figures in Africa are spiking alarmingly,” she said, urging renewed attention to foundational social systems. “The home is the foundation and place where the flowers are pruned. The home is where developmental architecture starts to take shape.”
She emphasised that poverty must be understood beyond income levels alone. “Today’s African parents are challenged by similar issues irrespective of countries where they reside. Top on the list is the multidimensional poverty issue,” she said, referring to combined deficits in education, health, housing, sanitation and infrastructure.
“Parents can be risk factors enabling and promoting their children drug use. On the flipside, parents could also be protective factors.”
Drug abuse, Odili argued, is often preceded by “lack of discipline, poor character asset, emotional regulations, and loss of self-esteem,” vulnerabilities that interact closely with unemployment and prolonged economic stress.
Professor Moruf Adelekan highlighted the importance of prevention-focused strategies aimed at young people, pointing to school-based interventions, community advocacy and scholarship schemes that “give these young people hope for the future.”
He stressed that sustainable responses must balance enforcement with education, social investment and community engagement, warning that reliance on punitive approaches alone will not address the root causes linking unemployment to heroin and tramadol use among Africa’s youth.
