- (a). The Role of Religion and Religious Leaders in the Fight Against Hard Drug Usage
Empirical observations have highlighted the significance of religion in reducing the usage of hard and illicit drugs among youths and adolescents. Gorsuch (1988), in his works, "Psychology of Religion" (201-221) and “Religious Aspects of Substance Abuse and Recovery” (1995, 65-83), as well as Johnson, Tomkins, & Webb (2002, 21) corroborated that religion reduces the tendency of the usage of hard drugs among adherents. According to John M. Wallace Jr., Tony N. Brown, Jerald G. Bachman & Thomas A. LaVeist, "young people who are highly religious consistently report lower levels of drug use than young people who are less religious" (Wallace et al 2003, 1). Johnson et al (2002, 21) corroborate this view, stating: "...research examining the role of religiosity in crime and delinquency ... found that the literature ...documents that religious commitment is generally linked to reductions in crime and delinquency...". Furthering their argument, Johnson et al (2002, 21) explain that faith-based organizations "appear to have advantages over comparable secular institutions in helping individuals overcome difficult circumstances (e.g., imprisonment and drug abuse)".
Walsh and Grob (2003, 192) contend that the entrance of psychedelics within the sphere of religiosity startled, and to a great extent, shook the Western world. It was all the more surprising to note that psychedelics produced a spiritual experience similar to the experiences of religious individuals. Even atheists and staunch Marxists claimed to have discovered kensho ('an initial insight or awakening, not full Buddha-hood’), which is generally practised in Buddhism. They also professed to have discovered moksha ('emancipation, liberation or release’; in the soteriological and eschatological sense, it connotes freedom from samsara, the cycle of death and rebirth), practised in Hinduism and Indian philosophy; and safari ('a Japanese Buddhist term for awakening, comprehension, and understanding. The term is derived from the Japanese verb Satoru. In the Zen Buddhist tradition, safari refers to the experience of kensho, or "seeing into one's true nature"). These contentions of Walsh and Grob (2005) proved to be very consistent over the subsequent years, prompting certain researchers to rename psychedelics as “entheogens”, which means "substances that facilitate the awareness of God within" (192).
The argument presented by these atheistic and Marxist scholars led to a rigid divide among scholars of religious studies in terms of the very definition of spirituality. Those on the side of tradition argued that the use of psychedelics and other types of hard and illicit drugs to induce sensations associated with spirituality was nothing more than pseudo-spirituality at best and delusional at worst. In exasperation, they argued that ordinary and mere micrograms of a curious chemical could not produce or replicate heightened human experiences, which were traditionally hard-won over centuries.
On the other hand, there were the following scholars: Dass (2005, 207-222), Shachter-Shalomi (2005, 195-206), and Smith (2005, 223-240), who developed their position, taking a cue from the famous Harvard research, titled "Good Friday Study", in conjunction with another outstanding theory - the "principle of causal indifference", which stated that if states were experientially identical, the difference in their causes would be completely irrelevant. Hence, they argued for the experiential equivalence between contemplative and chemical mysticism (Walsh and Grob 2005, 192). In his online review of Stace Walter Torrance's Mysticism and Philosophy on Amazon, Greg argues that "while Stace has somewhat under-rated the complexity of mystical thought within Christianity and also other religions, and some of his ideas have been superseded by more up-to-date scholarship (such as Bernard McGinn's The Presence of God: History of Western Christian Mysticism: Foundations of Mysticism Vol. I, which happens to be a far more accurate study of Christian mysticism, for example), for philosophers of religion, this remains a useful text for exploring the claims of religion which are based on so-called mystical experience."
Walsh (2003) explains that this debate on whether psychedelic drugs can induce states of spirituality has long been in the offing and will not abate anytime soon, given that the war on hard and illicit drugs continues to persist. He believes that drugs can indeed induce such states, explaining that in theory and practice, drugs, particularly "psychedelic ones can induce genuine spiritual and mystical experiences but only on some occasions in some people, under some circumstances" (1-6).
One of the earliest researchers in the psychology of religion, William James, concluded in his research on religion and drugs-induced spirituality that, "drugs provided a window of forms of consciousness" (James 1902, 292), which he argues has a significant "implication for religious experience" (cited in Imo 2001, 125). Zaechner (1957), a critic of drug-induced spirituality, argues that a "pale shadow of true religious experience" occurs when individuals attempt to induce true states of spirituality using any form of psychedelic drug. This argument was based on his personal experience.
In Nigeria, many Pentecostal preachers tend to use various forms of psychedelic drugs to induce spirituality. Over the course of this study, I was reliably informed of a senior Pentecostal preacher with a young minister who regarded him as a role model and accompanied him on crusades and revival meetings. Each day before they travelled, the young minister saw his '"Daddy" drink a "special tea". One day, the senior pastor told his young assistant to pour the tea from the kettle into the mug for him. As the young assistant opened the top of the kettle, he noticed that it was not tea but marijuana that his "Daddy" had been consuming to preach in great confidence and authority.
Imo (2001, 126) narrates the story of another Pentecostal preacher in Nigeria, who manifested great and charismatic powers:
He was invited to another congregation as a guest speaker at [sic] the occasion of their indoor revival. The guest speaker did [sic] many miracles, a younger Pentecostal minister of the host church was impressed by the powers the speaker manifested and approached him privately to ask for the secret of such abilities.
In confidence, the guest speaker told him about the price he needed to pay. Upon the insistence of the younger minister, the guest speaker told him that he used to go to a special temple to consume a special drug before coming out to preach. This was later made public and the guest speaker absconded from the scene. The above extract shows the extent to which drugs have infiltrated the religious sphere in Nigeria. This does not in any way suggest that every Pentecostal preacher uses a hard drug to enhance their spirituality. However, this demonstrates how drugs impact the religiosity of people in Nigeria by various means.
(b). Religiosity, Spirituality, and Substance Abuse
Globally, the meaning of religiosity and spirituality have become so intertwined that the distinctions appear to blur completely. Considering this, the present study represents an attempt to differentiate between the two concepts and demonstrates the extent to which each relates to substance abuse. In this research, substance abuse is weighed against the spirituality and religiosity of religious people. Wallace, John M., Myers. Valeric L. & Osai, Esohe R. argue that spirituality refers to specific characteristics of an individual: "[it] is the personal quest for understanding answers to ultimate questions about life, about the meaning and about the relationship to the sacred or transcendent, which may (or may not) lead to, or arise from, the development of religious rituals and the formation of community" (Wallace et al 2004, 20). Corroborating Wallace et al (2004), Alien (2009) argues that spirituality relates to an individual's connectivity or relationship to God. It also refers to the individual's observance of beliefs and practices that accompany this relationship or connectivity. This individual may belong to any religious organization or may not have any particular religious affiliation (Alien 2009, 13). Furthermore, Stephen Ellingson, elucidates, "spirituality carries a more positive valuation ... seen as deeply subjective, grounded in an individual's experiences of the sacred, and often is cultivated apart from religious organizations" (1996, 257). By this statement, Ellingson (1996) essentially intends to posit that organized religion may or may not lead an individual to spirituality; hence, man must not pursue spirituality through religious doctrine embedded in a religious organization. He stresses that several individuals within organized religion are not even associated with spirituality in the least, insisting that they only camouflage themselves with religious doctrine despite having no idea about spirituality. Ellingson makes this statement to buttress his argument that spirituality may not necessarily be associated with an organized religious body. Miller (1998) articulates the view that spirituality can only be viewed from the perspective of the individual's relationship and/or feelings toward God or other higher powers they are connected to while struggling in the self-search for purpose and meaning (985).
On the contrary, religiosity is regarded as a completely different concept. Miller (1998) explains that "religiosity is a complex, multidimensional construct and ... refers to the degree to which a person is religious from a primarily social and doctrinal perspective and is thus more easily quantifiable than abstract terms such as religion" (Miller 1998, 984; Alien, 2009, 8). This implies that while spirituality may not be quantified or measured using any instrument, religiosity may be measured as it is a social construct. In support of Miller (1998), Mann et al (2007, 868) argue that "religiosity pertains to one's involvement in a system of worship and doctrine that is shared within a group". This means that religiosity can be measured based on the following variables, namely: the regularity of attendance at religious meetings, the regularity of Bible or religious sacred text readings, and the regularity of prayer either in a religious gathering or at home. This implies that an individual's religiosity is associated not with their character towards their neighbour or other individuals in society, but with the number of times they pray, read the scriptures, and attend religious gatherings.
Miller (1998, 986) further argues that religiosity, as a social phenomenon, dwells within organized religion, with the major purpose of achieving spirituality. This is where the ideas tend to overlap between spirituality and religiosity. However, it must be clearly understood, that while religiosity is nested in organized religion, spirituality may not dwell in the same context. This means that one can be religious without being spiritual, but one who is spiritual must necessarily be religious. Some scholars, however, do not agree with this thesis.
Having now understood the difference between a religious and a spiritual person, what can be adduced from the relationship between them and hard drug usage? Can religiosity and spirituality, in any way, influence the use or non-use of hard and illicit drugs? Does the religious community contribute to minimizing the use of hard and illicit drugs? Many other questions such as this have become the subject of research in recent times. It has been observed that, by and large, most addicts who abuse hard and illicit drugs are individuals who are neither religious nor spiritual.
- The Impact and Effect of Hard Drug Usage on Individuals, Family and Society
It has been approximated that between 153 and 300 million people across the world, aged 15-64 (which represents about 3.5-6.6 per cent of the world’s population in this age bracket), have used hard or illicit drugs at least once in 2010. The above-estimated statistic is inclusive of those who are dependent on the drugs, which comprises nearly 12 per cent of the total number of illegal drug users (World Drug Report 2015, 7). It is further estimated that between 99,000, and 253,000 deaths globally can be attributed to the use of hard and illicit drugs, accounting for 0.5-1.3 per cent of all case-related mortality. In support, “the National Centre on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University (CASA) highlighted the seriousness of costs associated with the use of hard and illicit drugs.” The World Drug Report argues that “in 2005, federal, state and local government spending as a result of substance abuse and addiction was at least $467.7 billion; almost half (47.3 per cent) of public expenditure and of the spending that can be disaggregated by content, an estimated 18.7 billion is spent on hard and illicit drugs” (2015, 7).
Narcotics abuse has led to various concerns regarding its effects and implications. As revealed by social research findings, the abuse of hard and illicit drugs constitutes a societal predicament that has broadened swiftly over the years across varied sections of societies; it remains a sustained and continual threat to the maintenance and harmony of communities (World Drug Report 2015, 17). For instance, in an instrumental variable design study conducted by DeSimone (2002, 2), employment prospects are revealed to have been significantly curtailed by the abuse of “marijuana and cocaine”. The World Drug Report (2015, 11) indicates that the use of hard and illicit drugs is not limited to the lack of earnings, but also that these drug abusers are likely to delay marriage; those who end up getting married experience unhappy relationships. Moreover, the abuse of hard and illicit drugs has been connected with suicidal thoughts and behaviours (Waddell 2010, 2).
Furthermore, the abuse of hard and illicit drugs such as heroin, marijuana, cocaine, and methamphetamine are found to inflict severe damage upon individuals every year. Accidents, crimes, domestic violence, low productivity, damage to normative functioning, and lost opportunities are direct consequences of the use and abuse of these illicit drugs. The dreadful use of illegal drugs erodes human potential, resulting in homelessness, the spread of infectious diseases, and low levels of productivity in the workplace. In a report submitted to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) (2010, 15), “illegal drugs cost societies approximately $110 billion each year.” The greater costs are those of human life itself, either due to overdose, intolerance to use or "through substance abuse-related diseases such as Tuberculosis, Hepatitis, Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) and Acquire Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS).”
In all the reviewed literature, the authors failed to regard the need or potential for incorporating religiosity and spirituality as agents of change in people’s behaviour toward hard drug usage. This is the specific lacunae that the present study aims to address.