MentalHealthDaily

Drug Use and Internet Fraud Can Fuel Each Other, Young Nigerians Say

by GLOOM

MHD card showing a glowing laptop in a dark room with tangled network lines linking a phone, a stack of cash and capsules, illustrating a Nigerian focus-group study in which drug use and internet fraud could fuel each other.

Drug use and internet fraud often fed each other, according to 22 young adults in addiction treatment in southwestern Nigeria who took part in focus groups for a 2026 study. They also described both as driven by peer pressure, lack of jobs and mixed community approval, and as carrying real costs in guilt and distress.1 …