Youths were again reminded of the need to desist from illicit drugs and the act of drug abuse.

The Project Manager of the Conscientious Youth Empowerment Foundation *(CYEF)*- Kehinde Akinsola made the statement on Monday while featuring on a special program on RoyalFM 95.1, Ilorin in commemoration of the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

According to the project manager, most crimes and criminality in our society are in one way or the other linked to the prevalence of hard drugs like cannabis, and marijuana and the abuse of over-the-counter drugs like Codeine in our society.

Mr. Akinsola added that research has proven that youths between fifteen and thirty years use and abuse illicit substances globally and in Nigeria alone, over forty percent of Nigerian youths between eighteen and thirty-five are deeply addicted to drugs.

CYEF is a youth-based nongovernmental organization known for its programmes, events and policies tailored toward grooming a youthful society that is complete in character, politics and governance with assurances of doing more for a better world.

He stressed that the campaign for a clean youthful populace is quite demanding and as an organisation “impossibility” is never in the picture because CYF is taking it a step further by reaching out to more youth using all available means like; the internet, radio, television, billboards, fliers and retreats to promote sanity and good morals taking it a “community at a time”.

Mr. Akinsola, however, appealed to the government to do more in reducing unemployment and the reopening of public institutions of learning that got closed in Nigeria as a result of striking lecturers noting that an unengaged youth tends to join the bandwagon of individuals abusing drugs.

He also seized the opportunity to call for more support towards reducing to the barest minimum the spate at which drugs are being abused in our society.

Meanwhile, the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, or World Drug Day, is marked on the 26th June every year to strengthen action and cooperation in achieving a world free of drug abuse with this year’s theme being addressing drug challenges in health and humanitarian crises.