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Tag: drug

  • Why NAFDAC must digitise drug, food licences, by UK-based pharmacist

    Why NAFDAC must digitise drug, food licences, by UK-based pharmacist

    A United Kingdom (UK)-based Nigerian pharmacist, Mr. Peter Iyoko, has said Nigeria must enhance the standard of consumable goods it is exporting to Europe in line with international benchmarks. This, he said, will keep Nigeria in a position to earn steady foreign exchange from non-oil products.

    Iyoko, a former Students’ Union leader at the University of Jos (UNIJOS), spoke against the backdrop of the rejection of some Nigerian products exported to Europe, particularly beans. He said the inability of the National Agency for Food, Drug and Administration Control (NAFDAC) to ensure the products were safe for consumption may have led to their rejection by European countries.

    He said: “Let me speak in my capacity as a businessman with many years of experience on rules and regulations guiding the export of consumable goods. One thing that could certainly be responsible for the rejection of any products is the standardisation of such product. If any product, especially consumable goods, falls short of the international standard, it will be rejected from the point of entry for human safety and security.

    “For Nigeria to avoid re-occurrence of rejection of its products being exported to Europe, a holistic approach is required to ensure all rules and regulations guiding production, preservation and packaging are adhered to. NAFDAC needs to raise the bar for the manufacturers and ensure packaged food products being exported are up to international standard.”

    Iyoko called for the repositioning of NAFDAC, saying the agency was overdue for reforms. He said NAFDAC needed to take advantage of technology to digitise the records of consumable materials being produced in the country.

    He said: “If I were to be the Director General of NAFDAC, I would improve on the standardisation of all drugs and other consumable goods, right from the production point to preservation and distribution with absolute commitment to rid the system of expired and harmful food products. The system needs an overhaul in the area of delays to registration of imported items and the certifications of production plants.

    “There is need to digitise the records of imported drugs and food products in Nigeria, so that it will be easy to identify and recall products that have expired. Arrangements could be made for refund on the cost price of the products or a certain percentage of the loss incurred by the importers. This can strategically be done with NAFDAC also generating revenue.”

    He said expired and fake drugs still flooded Nigerian markets because of the laxity in employing digital technology to record goods brought to the countries by importers.

    He added: “We need to know that repackaging of expired drugs for human consumption is worst than terrorism and kidnapping. People involved in this wicked act should be treated as common enemies. NAFDAC must be up to the task to protect the market from adulterated products.”

    Iyoko said Nigeria needed to step up standards if it wanted to continue to export its products to the UK, especially as Britain prepares for post-Brexit era. He said there was high probability that Britain would introduce new trade regulations and import rule, adding that any country that wanted to sell its products in the UK may be subjected to stringent trade rules.

    Iyoko said: “The outcome of Brexit discussion should bother countries that may want to maintain trade with the UK. The system has set up an arrangement for the direction to go, but there should be a cause for alarm because both Britain and Europe can exist independently. But, there may be new regulations on trade and UK would announce its own standard. Countries that want to export to the UK would have to be subjected to these new rules.”

    The former students’ leader urged students and youth to be focused and continue to support the Muhammadu Buhari administration on its anti-corruption war.

  • Drug abuse among our youths

    Sir: It is a growing cause for concern and indeed very worrisome the way juveniles are involved in drug abuse and the lure in which a great percentage of the youthful population gravitates towards it. Though drug abuse is not a new phenomenon in our clime, what is new is the way our secondary school students of both sexes are engaged in it.

    These brash adventurers now play with various narcotic and psychotropic substances like cocaine, heroin, cannabis, codeine cough syrup, tramadol, amphetamine etc with reckless abandon. While the peer groups’ influence may be the driving force behind the surge, the collapse of both the societal and family value system may have laid the foundation. Take for instance the rising cases of broken homes resulting in single parentage and socio-economic imperatives which make both parents to take working careers with little or no sufficient time for their children or wards.

    Also, prevalent poverty in the land, disorientation arising from stark economic realities facing the nation, protracted universities’ strikes which render many minds idle and therefore susceptible to all kinds of manipulations and graduates which are  churned out of universities and are left unemployed with no social support system.

    Recent reports from NDLEA shows that youth involvement in drugs abuse particularly in North-west is quite alarming as quite a large number of young people from 15 to 35 years of both sexes use drugs either as stimulant or depressant purposes where even corrosive substances like super glue, aerosol, gasoline, correcting fluid or even organic solvents such as urine, toilets, dirty smelling gutters could be inhaled to achieve a particular result.

    While the North-west is said to have the highest cases of drug abuse, the South-west tops the list of areas with largest cultivation of illicit weeds and the South-east records the most traffickers of hard drugs. The reports also revealed that Nigeria holds the highest record of people serving various jail terms across the globe for drug-related offences.

    Suffice it to add that the recent upsurge in criminal activities like rape, cultism, armed robbery, militancy, insurgency, banditry and communal clashes now pervasive in the society are direct corollary effects of drug abuse.

    This exposure of youths to hard drugs also has negative sociological and psychological implications. For instance experts have said that drug addicts are often found to have a condition called ill-motivational syndrome which vitiate their productive capacities and renders them as liability to their parents and the society.

    These drugs may also have psychological effects which often time result in mental illness like psychosis or even madness. Findings have also linked some terminal diseases like cancer of the lung, kidney and liver and various life-threatening conditions to drug abuse.

    However NDLEA, the agency charged with fighting this obnoxious practice is plagued with paucity of human and material resources which hinder their effective operations. With staff strength of 4900 to cover the whole country and poor budgetary allocation, they may not adequately deliver on their mandates.

    In view of the adverse effects of drug abuse on the nation, the government and non-governmental organizations should intensify anti-drug awareness campaigns especially in our secondary and tertiary institutions while rehabilitation centers should be established in most towns across the country to handle cases of addictions.

    Governments at the three-tier should rise to the occasion and make funds available to wage an effective and a sustained war against this rampantly ravaging malaise.

     

    • Itaobong Offiong Etim,

    Calabar.

  • Drug bus

    •The NDLEA should dig into how a university bus obtained cannabis

    A school bus belongs in the provenance of propriety. So, we expect it to convey students seated in solemn rows on their way to a debating competition, quiz contest, sporting extravaganza, government institution or some other engagement of mental and physical enlightenment. No one expects to associate a university bus with drugs.

    That was the misnomer when one of the buses of Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, was intercepted with wraps of cannabis, otherwise known as Indian hemp inside it. The Toyota Coaster bus with registration number FUNAAB 50 B-100 FG, was conveying 211 parcels of the illicit substance along the Imeko Afon area of the Idiroko border when it was stopped by personnel of the Ogun State Area Command of the Nigeria Customs Service, according to the command controller, Sani Maduga. He identified the driver as Abolade Bolaji, “caught in the Imeko border town while conveying the illegal drug into the country.”

    He added that the suspect “concealed parcels of Indian hemp under the bags of rice he was conveying with the vehicle to Abeokuta, when nemesis caught up with him. Our operatives on patrol stopped the vehicle and searched it, only to discover the illicit drug.”

    This runs counter to what we associate with higher education, but it also indicates how employees have imbibed the growing absurdity of impunity in our society. The university’s response was predictable. Its head, public relations, Emi Alawode, announced that “already, the university has put the necessary machinery in place to carry out proper investigations to ascertain what actually transpired on the said date on one hand, while law enforcement agents on the other hand would be allowed and supported to perform their statutory duties in the overall interest of all citizens.”

    The driver was relieved of his job, and that seems to have satisfied the university so far.

    “The letter of dismissal, referenced FUNAAB/R/JP.1804/1/43 and signed by the acting registrar of the university, Dr. (Mrs.) Linda Onwuka, reads in part, “I write to inform you that your services, as a driver/mechanic II in the Bureau of Transportation, are no longer required by the university and consequently, you are hereby dismissed from the services of the university with immediate effect.

    “The decision was taken in adherence to extant regulations, the rules of engagement of the said officer in the university, as well as avail the accused person the required time and attention to respond to the allegations levelled against him by law enforcement agents.”

    This is routine while we await the fruits of its investigation. We would like to know how a university could have descended to such an extent as to allow a driver abuse its vehicle and convey such illegality.

    Did the university not have a policy on ground on who, how and when to authorise a vehicle with the mechanism of how to monitor who drives, what the bus conveys and time it as to when to return to its park on campus?

    Laxity gave way to criminality. It is also sad that the parcels of Indian hemp were concealed under bags of rice. It is a marker of how Nigerians abuse propriety. As a university of agriculture, the sight of bags of rice should appear normal in its bus as evidence of its educational activity.

    Since the matter has been handed over to the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency, the country should know how the drug was sourced. It will help unravel the racket behind it. We commend the customs personnel for their diligence in this matter. This work will mean little if a mere arrest and even conviction does not lead to the root cause.

  • Barbaric church killing: Priest unhurt

    Barbaric church killing: Priest unhurt

    Buhari, Saraki, Dogara, others condemn attack

    It was all like an action-packed movie.

    A gunman dressed in black, storming a church and opening fire on worshippers.

    There was commotion. By the time the gunman left, no fewer than 11 worshippers lay dead.

    That was the scene yesterday at St. Philip’s Catholic Church, Amakwa-Ozubulu in Ekwusigo Local Government Area of Anambra State. The gunman came during the early morning mass.

    Many were injured during the incident, which Governor Willie Obiano described as “sacrilegious”.

    An eyewitness, who narrated how the attack occurred, said the priest, Rev. Fr. Jude Onwuaso, was unhurt. The witness, who said he was part of those who evacuated the victims, said the gunman went into the church, identified Chief Akunwafor Ikegwuonwu, a parishioner, and shot him dead. He then went on the rampage, shooting indiscriminately at worshippers.

    Commissioner of Police Garba Baba Umar said 11 persons were killed and 18 injured. He said some people in the community had been invited for interrogation.

    It was leant that the gunman may have struck on the instruction of one of two suspected drug barons from the community who live in South Africa. One of them, who was the gunman’s target, is believed to have built the Catholic Church about two years ago.

    There are two accounts of the incident. One is that a gunman committed the crime. The other claimed there were six gunmen.

    A source from the community, who pleaded for anonymity, told The Nation that the gunmen visited the home of one of the drug barons, perhaps to assassinate him, but discovered that he had travelled.

    This, according to the source, might have made them to visit the Catholic Church near his house.

    The father of the suspected drug baron was killed along with others in the church

    The police commissioner said preliminary investigation revealed that the attack was carried out by people from the area and not by Boko Haram as being speculated in some quarters.

    He said: “From our findings, it is very clear that the person who carried out the attack must be an indigene of the area.

    “We gathered that worshippers for 6 o’clock Sunday mass at St. Philip Ozobulu were in the service when gunmen dressed in black attire, covering their faces with fez caps, entered the church and moved straight to a particular direction and opened fire.

    “The men, after shooting at their targeted victim, still went on a shooting spree, killing and wounding other worshippers.’’

    It was learnt that the attackers were speaking Igbo when firing at the worshippers.

    Umar said though no arrest had been made, the police were working on the information that the attack followed a quarrel between two Ozubulu men living abroad.

    The commissioner of police said it was wrong for the perpetrators of the act to take their quarrel into the church, saying “such conduct shows the people behind the act do not fear God’’.

    The police have launched a manhunt for suspects.

    Dismissing the rumour that the attack was carried out by Boko Haram elements, Umar urged residents to go about their businesses without fear.

    Obiano visited the church and the Nnamdi Azikwe University Teaching Hospital, NAUTH, Nnewi where the injured were being treated.

    He also confirmed that the shooting followed a clash of two brothers based abroad. He described it as a “communal feud”.

    Obiano promised to offset the medical bills of the injured and assist in the funeral for those killed.

    Some of the critically injured died on the way to the hospital.

    Obiano added that intelligence report linked the shooting to an existing feud between some members of Umuezekwe Ofufe Amakwa community of Ozubulu living abroad.

    “It is an isolated case and I urge worshippers in the Church and residents of the area to go about their normal activities.”

    He also said 50 doctors had been mobilised to the hospital to assist in providing the best medical care to the injured persons.

    The governor also visited Our Lady of Assumption Catholic Cathedral, Nnewi, where he addressed a congregation of worshippers.

    He intimated the worshippers on the true picture of the incident, saying there was nothing to worry about.

    The Priest of St. Philip’s Catholic Church, Rev. Fr. Jude Onwuaso, said the attack took place at about 6.30 a.m.

    According to him, an unidentified man came into the church, shot at a man,  Ikegwuonwu, before shooting sporadically at other worshippers.

    An eyewitness, who simply identified herself as a choir member, said the church was dark as there was no power supply at the time.

    She said the generating set suddenly stopped working; so, the mass proceeded with the congregation using candles.

    According to her, the gunman, after the shooting, immediately jumped into a waiting car with a driver.

    One of the survivors, Mr. Stephen Ohamadike told The Nation at the church premises that the gunmen entered the church around 6.45am as they were about to begin “ the prayer of the faithful”.

    His words: “Those of us who were to say the prayers of the faithful had just assembled at the altar and I had number 2 which meant that I was to say the prayer for Nigeria.

    “Suddenly, I saw someone who was putting on a cap, shooting indiscriminately inside the church.

    “There was pandemonium and in the midst of the confusion, I just lay down on the floor.

    “The officiating priest and the Mass servers quickly left the altar and the Mass came to an abrupt end.

    ”I counted 11 bodies and many were injured. I used the vehicle belonging to Pa Ikwgwuonu to take him and his wife and others to Evans Hospital where the doctors advised us to go to the teaching hospital.  I used the car to convey many other people to the hospital before I came back to Amakwa.”

  • Ogun gets panel to check illegal drug

    The Ogun State government has set up a committee to fish out illegal drug dealers and those patronising them, to rid the state of drug-related crimes.

    The government said it would not tolerate illegal drug dealers in any part of the state.

    Director of Pharmaceutical Services in the Ministry of Health Mr. Olufemi Fafiolu addressed reporters in Abeokuta, the state capital, on the increase in illegal drug dealers and outlets.

    Fafiolu said the committee would raid and picket illegal and counterfeit drug premises, outlets and unwholesome processed food outlets this month.

    He warned those engaged in illegal drug businesses to desist.

    The director noted that anyone caught would face the full wrath of the law.

    The state government, according to the director, “is worried by the influx of illegal drug dealers from Lagos State into the state, and the government will not fold its arms while unscrupulous elements perpetrate illegal drug deals”.

  • Crime reporters hold seminar on drug, human trafficking

    THE Crime Reporters’ Association of Nigeria recently held a one-day seminar to mark the International Day Against Drug and Human Trafficking with the theme, “Changing the Narrative in Nigeria.”

    One of the distinguished lecturers at the event, DCI Segun Adegoke, PCO, Ikoyi Immigration Passport Office, condemned drug and human trafficking in his presentation and advised Nigerians to keep away from these practices.

    He said: “The principal effect of drugs is that they interfere with the way the brain works. They disturb the thinking process, data processing by the brain and the way the person perceives things and reacts to the environment.”

  • Drug and substance misuse: Resist the temptation (4)

    Kidney may also fail in case of septicaemia. Brain damage may occur as I mentioned above. It may or may not be reversible.

    The person may become disfigured. Drug may affect a person’s fertility and ability to have children

    In women, who are pregnant, the child may be severely affected and may present as a “drug addict” at birth with craving or withdrawal symptoms. That may affect the child for life. This is commonly seen in alcoholic pregnant mothers. Some drugs my stiffen life out of the unborn child, especially in early pregnancy. Cigarette do damage the lungs of the new born.

    Nicotine in cigarette has been linked to cancers of the lungs and bladder and it has effect on other cancers such as breast cancer especially in women. Alcohol is known to cause or be associated with cancers and also contributing to many of such diseases in women and men. In short, alcohol misuse causes cancers.

     

     General effects

    Economic: Someone suffering any of the clinical effects cannot be described as being healthy. Certainly, productivity may diminish due to diseased state.  Business and work may suffer as a result. Cost of caring for the user and the loss in productivity will affect incomes. It may as a result affect career.  Many political aspirants who took drugs in teenage years have fallen by the way side later on in their political career.  In the least, they have had to explain to the public and possibly apologise for ever taking drugs in ignorance. Thus, drugs can affect future ambitions.

    School and education may suffer considerably. Many individuals have had their schooling cut short on the account of drugs misuse. I have clients now and in the past who had been impaired by alcohol, prescription drugs, cannabis and heroin with serious effects on their academic performance.

    Social and family: The impact of drug is widespread.First, it may affect the children who may copy the user. I have seen many spouses and relationship ruined because a partner introduced drug into the family and relationship.

    This may lead to disease states and fragmentation of the family.

    Legal effects and crimes: It has been proven beyond doubt that drugs misuse from alcohol to heroin and cocaine and indeed any form of drugs that distorts reality may aid commission of offence. Commission of offence may lead to imprisonment and or detention in mental health institution. The person may begin to act out of character. This may be the start of a trend in which there is drug use leading to crime and the beginning of the ruining of a life that started as a bright star.

    The situation of drug misuse in Nigeria

    Let us face it: with a lax rule of law in practice, poor infrastructure to support economic development, no social welfare benefits, wide disparity between the rich and poor and with 62  per cent of her people living below poverty line and per capital income recently risen to about $1200 (UNDP) and a teeming population of over N160M, Nigeria is essentially a drug-consuming and producing country.  Nigeria is also a significant transit and courier country.

    According to available public records,”former Chairman of NDLEA (National Drug Law Enforcement Agency), Alhaji Ahmadu Giade, described illicit drugs as “alien” to Nigeria. Cannabis, now locally grown in most states of the federation, was introduced to the country by foreigners. Ms Dagmar Thomas, the Country Representative of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), says Nigeria was one of the largest cannabis growers in Africa, with over eight per cent of the population abusing cannabis. Yearly cannabis seizures increased from 126 metric tones in 2005 to 210 metric tones in 2007.

    The NDLEA describes the Southwest as one of the main centres of illicit drug production in the country. About 196.5 acres (0.795 km2) of cannabis farmland were discovered and destroyed in the region in 2008.

    Edo State has the highest rate of seizure of cannabis in the country. In April 2009, the NDLEA confiscated 6.5 tones of marijuana from the home of a man in Ogun State who claimed to be 114 years old. In September 2009, the NDLEA reportedly destroyed a 24-hectare Cannabis Plantation in a forest reserve in Osun State.

    In January 2009, the NDLEA publicly burned 5,605.45 kilogrammes of drugs seized from traffickers in the historic town of Badagry, Lagos.

    The bonfire included 376.45 kilogrammes of cocaine, 71.46 kilogrammes of heroin and 5,157.56 tonnes of cannabis in 2015… Between 2006 and June 2008, over 12,663 suspected drug dealers were arrested, with seizure of over 418.8 metric tonnes of various hard drugs.

    For example, in July 2009, a woman about to board a KLM flight at the Mallam Aminu Kano International Airport was arrested by NDLEA officers. She later excreted 42 wraps of cocaine, weighing 585 grammes.

    In September 2009, the NDLEA arrested a Guinean woman en route  Brazil to Europe with 6.350 kg of pure cocaine at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos.”

    Yet, about 20 percent of Nigerians are mentally unwell with drugs misuse contributing a significant proportion to the scourge of mental illness.

  • Kano NDLEA boss laments youths’ drug addiction

    Commandant of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in Kano State, Hamza Umar, has expressed worries over the alarming rate of youths’ addiction to hard drugs.

    Umar, who spoke during activities to mark the World Drugs Day in Kano, noted that the trend has taken a disturbing and frightening dimension.

    Despite the persistent campaign against drug abuse, Umar regretted that uniforms and guns cannot halt the ugly trend, hence, his appeal to religious communities to help sensitise the youths on the dangers of drug abuse.

    He admonished religious leaders to complement the agency by preaching to their followers to desist from hard drugs consumption.

    His words: “There is no way we can sustain this war without the support of religious organisations because uniforms and guns cannot solve the country’s problems. The bitter truth is that in this society, almost every class, from the so-called elite to the downtrodden, are affected by drug abuse.”

  • Drug and substance misuse: resist the temptation

    •Continued from last week…

    Poverty (and ignorance): As in (3) above, with unguided individuals who is poor, there is greater likelihood of alcohol misuse, nicotine misuse and cannabis. Heroin and cocaine appears to be the preserve of the rich though not exclusively.

    • Abuse of Prescription Drugs. As our definition clearly stated, any chemical can be abused be it prescription drugs or recreational drugs. Some individuals do suffer long standing and painful conditions. In such a state, some believes that taking more than what the doctor has prescribed would provide corresponding greater healing effect. In fact, the opposite may be true. It may cause considerable damage beyond what the user had ever contemplated. Yet, there are many people who out of ignorance, poverty or both refused to attend a medical consultation. Instead, they prefer going to the local chemist or pharmacy to get over the counter medications. Paracetamol or other pain killer as well as sleeping tablets belong to drugs that are frequently abused by the public. Abuse of over the counter drugs and prescribed medications are extremely dangerous. Illnesses are better handled by clinician and trained professionals.

    In similar situations, there are individuals who use drugs to “suppress” the effect of a disease. Cannabis, illegal as it is for example, is used by some in the belief that it helps the pain of chronic diseases. To be truthful, it is to this end that a prescribe-able form of cannabis has now developed.  Cannabis causes, depression and paranoia. Some mental health patients who ironically developed paranoia tend to believe that their depression and paranoia could get better by use of cannabis. The opposite is in fact true. It could and does get worse.

     

     Ways of using drugs?

    The ultimate aim of drug user is to get the drug to the brain: however it gets there.

    Therefore, the common routes are:

    • The mouth as in tablets such as ecstasy, various forms of preparation as in chewing of some of our traditional medicines. Some is taken as liquid as in alcohol and gas as in cigarette  and cannabis (also known as marijuana, skunk).
    • Through the nose as in cocaine sniffing.
    • Through the blood vessels (injection) as in heroin
    • It may also be through the vagina or anus as in drug courier and other shrewd users.

    How is drug presented? What does some of these drugs look like?

    • It can be in its natural form of leaves as in cannabis or heroin or cocaine as in coca
    • It can be in tablet forms as in LSD or ecstasy. It may look very innocent in presentation.
    • It may be in powder form as in cocaine powder which is often “white” in colour.
    • It may be in liquid form as in paint, petrochemicals and alcohol (ethanol). Some drugs such as cocaine and heroin may also be dissolved chemicals as a way to conceal their usage and carriage.
    • It may have been transformed by the barons in which case they may mix it with other products to disguise the real content of it.

     

    Effects of drug abuse

    Clinical:

    I will not be detailing the effects of each of these drugs. To do so will undoubtedly complicate the discussion. Suffice to say that the principal effect is that drugs of all classes interfere with the way the brain works. Drugs interfere with the thinking process, the data processing by the brain and the way the person perceives things from the environment and the way the person reacts to the environment.

    Drugs such as alcohol do also cause real and tangible damage to the substance of the brain which may lead to mental health diseases such as dementia.

    Ultimately, drugs can contribute to or lead to psychosis, schizophrenia, paranoia (undue suspicions), delusions, hallucinations (hearing of voices, seeing strange things, and feelings of unrealistic sensations on the body, smelling things that feel abnormal or unreal), mania and unreasonable euphoria. It may lead to distortion of reality. Drugs may cause or contribute to depression, panic attacks and anxiety and sleeplessness. The list is endless.

    Physical effects: The person abusing drugs may not now be well without the drugs (called addiction). He or she depends on it for daily “boost” (called dependence). If the person is injecting the drugs, it may leave marks on the skin. In fact this is probably the simplest effect.

    The person may contact infection such as AIDS/HIV/hepatitis especially if needles are being shared between drug users.  Substance misuse may also lead to other forms of less known infection that may kill the individual.  Septicaemia or blood poisoning may be what will ultimately kill the person.  I have seen someone, a drug user who developed abscess of the groin and had to have his leg and hip amputated as a result of what is known as osteomyelitis.   If death or other severe damage has not occurred, organ damage may occur such as liver disease for example: cirrhosis of the liver as in chronic alcohol misuse.  Continue from last week…

  • Drug and substance misuse: resist the temptation

    •Continued from last week…

    As we shall see below, there are lots of impacts of drug misuse on the society, friends and not the least the individual drug miser. In the least, it gives a certain community and nation a bad name and image. In neighbourhood where drug misuse is common, the image projected by the drug usage is clear for everyone to see. For example, the community is branded as drug misuser, crime rates are higher, unemployment is high, property and social development is such community are low. Drug misuse has serious impacts on the said community not to mention the serious implication on mental health.

     

    Drugs that are commonly misused/abused

    Strictly speaking, anything and any chemical can be abused. They range from tobacco (nicotine), alcohol, smoking tea (!), petrochemicals, paint, kerosene, to cannabis and to more serious ones like cocaine, heroin, LSD, ecstasy, magic mushrooms and many more. Just anything can be a drug. It may be common plants or cultural plants such as khat commonly used in Somalia and now used in the Western World. Probably the commonest drug of abuse is alcohol and nicotine (cigarette) and marijuana.

     

    Why do people abuse drugs?

    1) Lack of knowledge / Ignorance. The old saying that ignorance is a disease and that ignorance kills is ever so perfectly true as in drug misuse.  Most innocent people especially adolescents and children are introduced to drugs without them ever being aware of what they are getting into. The reasons are that:

    • Some parents do abuse their children: Parents who are on drugs (see above list of drugs but especially alcohol and nicotine) will most tacitly or directly introduce the drugs to their children. Children of course learn from parental habits or learn from the habits of guardian. They will simply pick up the behaviour.
    • The “mates” and friends effect: Hardly does it ever occur that anyone, for the first time and without prior knowledge of drugs, could walk along the street looking to buy heroin, cocaine or even alcohol. Someone must have first, introduced the substance to the person. This is where “mates” and friends come in. Pressure groups, in schools, streets, rave parties’ gives the drugs to the unwary, the easily led and innocent person who wants to “belong” to his mates or “be like them”.  In my clinical experience, this is how teenagers get into drugs. The “mates” often “market” the drugs as “happy” substance and asking the innocent person to try it.  On the other hands, the drugs may be marketed as helping users to be bold and less shy especially in approaching the opposite gender.
    •   Illegal administration/ criminal acts: Sometimes in parties and to the unwary, drugs may be put in drinks and food belonging to the victim who innocently takes the drugs. On other occasions, the drug may be presented as sweats or something pleasant that the victim may benefit from. Actually, in law, this is both an illegal administration of drugs and this act is seen as poisoning the victim.  This is what happens, sometimes between children and parents. It also occurs between “mates” or between opposite genders. Males may put rape drugs in drinks of a female whom the male intended to subdue for the purpose of rape when the drug had taken full effect. The victim being unaware takes the drink and subsequently get attacked.
    • Supposed pressure of life/ Desire to excel in life: There is a false belief that, using recreational drugs can give relief of some sort such as “stepping down” from a pressure of unemployment, family issues, pressurising job positions, career and school pressures: Relieve may indeed last for a while. Once it becomes a habit, the damage may have gone too far and beyond repair. So, taking illegal drugs is an escapist method of dealing with failures and pressures of life.  The desire to excel is linked to success. As I mentioned earlier, drug taking is almost always an act of cheating the rest of the society. This is the situation that occurs in sports and games. In the end, it does not pay to take performance enhancing drugs as we have witnessed with so many lives cut short, sport career banished, athletes are banned from games and money in the hands of drug misuser is filtered away.
    • Duress: If you are poor and you are looking for way out of it and you happen to fall into the wrong hands, you may be forced into the drug ring. In the first, you may actively be looking for the way out of your poverty. This can be by your voluntary action in which case you choose to be part of the drug team as either a courier and or a user. Of course, it makes loyalty sense that if you are going to be part of a team, you should show your commitment to the leadership by taking the drugs, somehow. The loyalty factor ties the drug courier and user to the baron. On the other hand, you may be actively recruited and be forced to take or carry drugs under the threat of death or any other harm In return couriers and users are promised a handsome reward. In the end, your action may lead to your mental health breakdown or you end up in prison or both. Continue from next week…