Experts Says Nigeria’s Drug Prevalence Worrisome At 14.4%
TITUS ALLI, Abuja
Nigeria’s drug prevalence put at 14.4%, has been described as worrisome and alarming, being three times above the global prevalence of 5.5%, according to the 2019 world drugs reports.
The depressing report on Nigeria is said to be a “scratch on the surface” as experts believe that drug abuse in Nigeria which assumes new phenomenon daily, is far deeper than what has been discovered.
More worrisome is the reports on the regional distribution of the abuse, with South West having as high as 22.4%, followed by South-South at 16.6% and South East 13.8%, according to Presidential Advisory Committee on the Elimination of Drug Abuse, PACEDA, headed by the former Military Administrator of Lagos State, Buba Marwa
Speaking with reporters in Abuja , Marwa, said the reports show that North East , North West and Northcentral have 13.6%, 12% and 10% respectively.
The report also show that Lagos alone has a total of 2, 117, 000 drug users, followed by Kano at 1, 070, 000 drug users.
Marwa described the development as “ deplorable,” while also advising the Federal government to take urgent steps to halt the rising trend.
The committee identified drugs regularly abused to include psychoactive substances such as canabis and non- medical use of opioids such as tramadol, codeine cough syrups, tranquillizers abd sedatives, ecstasy, solvents and inhalants, amphetamines and prescriptions stimulants and cocaine
The committee said the government must take “immediate social intervention measures such as public enlightenment to scale up awareness” of the dangers of drug abuse.
Auwal Ibrahim, Executive Director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Center, while commenting on the report, blamed the high prevalence of drug use amongst the youth on “ misplaced value system and failure of strong family ties”
He also lamented poor government response especially from institutions saddled with the responsibility of addressing the issue.
“ We lack effective coordination amongst the MDAs to ensure effective response and government must strengthen those institutions assigned to carry out advocacy , while also tackling issues around poverty,” he said.
Suleiman Lamorde, a legal practitioner, while also contributing to the debate, called for stronger legal measures to check “ open hawking of drugs”
According to him” “ Unless very stringent measures are adopted to ensure that these drugs are not easily available, government efforts at controlling their abuse will have no effect”
The Presidential committee recommended the “declaration of State of Emergency on the drug menace” , as well as the establishment of a “ National Drug Control Commission NDCC,” to be charged with the role of overseeing the coordinated response to tackling the menace.
Drug menace amongst nest Nigerians, especially the youths, is compounded by availability and easy access to the drugs through informal drug sellers who hawk them in the open market.
The committee also called on the government to launch open campaign by flagging off war against drug abuse “ We recommend the immediate launch of the War Against Drug Abuse WADA, “ , as part of the sensitization program”
The committee also recommended drugs supply reduction and intelligence-led aggressive action in keeping with the global trend.
They also called on the National Assembly to fast tract the passage of the Pharmacists Council Bill, which has been lying at the National Assembly for over two years
“ We also recommend that a certain percentage of the budget be dedicated to the war . It is that bad “ the committee said
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