By our reporter|The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and other stakeholders have decried 14.5 percent of Nigerians using cannabis, cocaine, codeine syrup, and other illegal drugs.
Speaking at a forum for the eradication of drug abuse and illicit substance among the youth in Nigeria, the Director, Drug Demand Reduction Directorate of the NDLEA, Titus-Awogbuyi Joyce, disclosed that the agency’s in-house data showed that 14.3 million people in Nigeria take hard drugs as at 2018.
According to her, NDLEA’s data show that one out of four people who use drugs happen to be women.
The Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, also decried the growing incidence of drug abuse in Nigeria.
Represented by his Special Assistant on Inter-Governmental Relations, Abdulrahman Naibi Rajab, the Minister said the escalation in the use of hard drugs was affecting national development.
He said the Ministry would ramp up funding and activities to stem the tide of illegal substance use in the country.
In her contribution, the Founder/Chairperson of Baba-Rabi Foundation, Mrs. Nana Fatima Mede, said drug abuse has become prevalent in Nigeria and this includes “anything that gives you pleasure. Anything that you use as against what it was intended to be used for, things you take to get high and forget your problems.”
Mrs. Mede said no family in Nigeria is insulated from the problem of illicit substance use and this could not be divorced from high crime rate and road traffic accidents.
She called on young people to desist from illegal substance use for their health and future.
Data sourced from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) show that 246 million people in the world have used illicit drugs in the past 12 months as of 2014.
The drugs used included cannabis, opiate (such as heroin), cocaine, and amphetamine-type stimulant.
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