 And a Global Peace Foundation Nigeria and Amaya Peace Foundation have organized a one-day workshop in Kafenchan, Katruna State, NW, Nigeria to raise awareness about the negative impact of illicit drugs on community security and peaceful coexistence among youth and women in southern Katruna. The aim is to combat societal menace, fueling communal crisis and conflict, plus the correspondent Habila Derofei files this report. Despite the national drug policy, drug and substance abuse in Nigeria remains high, particularly in southern Katruna. The increasing availability of our drugs has a triple effect on youth and women, leading to out-of-school children, insecurity, violence and order social biases in the society. Nigeria's Global Peace Foundation's counter-director Reverend Dr. Joseph Ayub haversizes the negative impact of substance abuse on mental health and calls for the creation of economic activities for youth. Rounding the violence in southern Katruna and in many parts of Nigeria, the key factor that is motivating young people to go into violence is drug addiction. And we feel we need to engage them, engage the drug addicts themselves, talk with perpetrators, community leaders and see how together we can help, that we can work with them to help them come out of drugs and to help them make meaningful use of their lives for positive things. And from the conversation today, you can see that a good number of them went into drugs not because they really wanted, some are saying out of frustration, some are saying that due to societal pressure, some are saying they do lack of job. The VNC of the Global Peace addresses the alarming rate of substance abuse while stressing the need for a holistic approach and ordering critical stakeholders to join the fight against zero tolerance. The southern Katruna youth, regardless of any difference be it's religious, tribal and ethnic, they should keep away from drug abuse because drug abuse is self-destructive. It causes one to jettison their educational pursuits. The government should do all that it can to also eradicate the menace of drug abuse. Approach to peace building should be holistic. No particular group should be neglected and what we are doing is that as we talk to people who we assume are reasonable, we must also understand that the people we claim that they are not reasonable have a role to play, they have their contribution towards finding solutions to peace. Participants express delight in a workshop, state and its walls timely and appropriate, which has transformed their narratives to benefit society. This workshop is very good because I've never been in a workshop like this. I take drugs, so being in this kind of workshop makes me to learn a lot and to get myself out of drugs. This program that they did here will help me and today I promise myself that I will not do that again, I will not take any drugs, I will not drink, I will not drink any more. I promise myself that I will tell my mother that I will be back to speak. I'm smoking, I'm doing bad habits and then I want to change that is why I came here. Help me to stop smoking, taking anything that will stop my future. The foundation advocates for government, religious and traditional leaders' engagements of youth in entrepreneurship and job creation to combat substance abuse. Nigeria with over 14 million users should ensure full implementation of the national drug policy to regulate drug availability, supply and distribution.