The Senate has urged the Federal Government to declare a State of Emergency on illicit drugs and drug abuse in the country.
This followed the adoption of a motion on “Urgent need to address the menace of drug abuse in Nigeria” at plenary on Tuesday by Sen. Babangida Hussain (APC -Jigawa).
Presenting the motion, Babangida said that Nigeria was faced with rising cases of drug abuse which had reached an unprecedented level.
He said Nigeria had transformed from a mere transit country in the 1990s, into a country filled with drug addiction and drug traffickers all over its land space.
“A population of between 30 million and 35 million spends approximately 15,000 and 30,000 dollars annually on psychotropic drugs and alcoholic beverages in Nigeria,” he said.
He said the statistics by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime and the European Union on drug use in Nigeria, stated that about 14.3 million Nigerians between the ages 15 and 64, were drug users.
“The report stated that 10.6 million addicts were cannabis users, 4.6 addicts used pharmaceutical opioids and 238, 0000 abusers used amphetamines,” he said.
He said the prevalence of drug abuse per geo-political zone in 2017 showed that the North-West accounted for 12 percent, the North-East 13.6 percent North- the Central 10.0 percent, the South-West 22.4 percent South-South 16.6 percent, and the South-East 13.8 percent.
Babaginda said the main drugs abused in Nigeria were mood-altering or psychoactive drugs, performance-enhancing drugs, dependency drugs, and prescription drugs.
He said the side effects included addiction, trauma, and mental illness and often resulted in ill health, violence, and involvement in criminal activities.
He said that a significant number of deaths from accidents and violent crimes had been traced to the activities of persons under the influence of drugs.
He expressed worry that the war against drug abuse being carried out by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency was not yielding the required result.
Babaginda said there was a need to include special drug education in the school’s curriculum.
He also expressed concern that the prevalence of drug abuse in Nigeria was a public health challenge that seemed to be on the increase despite intervention by international, regional, federal, and state bodies through laws and policies.
Contributing, Sen.Mohammed Monguno (APC-Borno) said drug abuse was affecting the productivity of youths as it had negative economic effects, while also distorting cultural values.
(NAN)
