INSECURITY AND PSYCHOTROPIC DRUGS

The abuse of hard drugs increases the country’s vulnerability to crimes

For years, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has linked the current challenge of internal security within the country largely to uncontrolled influx and use of psychotropic medicines such as Tramadol and other chemicals. The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Chairman, Mohammed Buba Marwa, has also repeatedly warned that the situation in Nigeria is “frightening” even as he has championed a “win the war” approach that places premium on destroying the supply networks and reducing demand through rehabilitation and public enlightenment. Despite these warnings, the challenge of drug abuse seems to be growing across the country.

We support the efforts of the NDLEA to contain the inflow of psychotropic medications, which are drugs that affect behaviour, mood, thoughts, and perception. We also appeal to our regulatory authorities to see this warning as a wake-up call. The NAFDAC, Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) must attend to regulatory compliance and prevent fake and substandard pharmaceutical consignments from our shores as well as ensure that only safe and quality regulated products are available for distribution. 

Abuse of drugs and substance is a global phenomenon. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) Expert Committee on Drug Dependence, had warned about the dire implications of the growing abuse of Tramadol by some African and West Asian countries. This, according to them, could lead to intoxication similar to other opioid analgesics with the consequence of the breakdown of central nervous system (CNS), depression, coma, cardiovascular collapse, seizures and respiratory depression up to a respiratory arrest. 

The consequence of ignoring the danger of prescription but commonly misused drugs can be dire. We are already seeing the effect of how several years of violence, insurgency, and now banditry can destabilise a country and undermine its development. Following his numerous interactions with bandits in Zamfara State a few years ago, Sheikh Ahmad Gumi confirmed that most of the people he encountered were junkies. Yet because of them we have for years embarked on expensive military operations while thousands of our people have either been killed or displaced. There is also a profound threat to food security given that many farmers now find it risky to go to the field to plant and harvest crops.  

Criminal groups under the influence of narcotics and other drugs are also gaining notoriety by ganging up with terrorists, drug traffickers and pirates in the Gulf of Guinea. Federal Capital Territory (FCT) officials have also singled out scavengers under the influence of hard drugs, as the catalysts of many criminal activities, including kidnapping which are on the rise in Abuja. These homeless people have no means of livelihood and are willing tools to be exploited for arson and breach of public peace and order. 

In many parts of the country, abduction of people is now a thriving business as hardly a day goes by without news of people being kidnapped for ransom either in their homes or on their way to work or while travelling on the road. Unfortunately, some of these insurgents, bandits and kidnappers are hooked to psychotropic drugs which they consume before carrying out their despicable acts. Government has a shared responsibility to address this problem in a manner that will ensure that criminals addicted to psychotropic drugs are prevented from exploiting the weak. 

 There is also a need to review our value system, particularly at home and in schools. Parents have the obligation to discreetly vet the kind of company their children keep so as to safeguard them from being introduced to drugs and crimes.