The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Drugs

  • Runsewe hails Marwa committee on drugs

    The Director-General of the National Council for Arts and Culture, Otunba Segun Runsewe, has hailed the initiative of the Brig-Gen. Buba Marwa-led Presidential Advisory Committee on the Elimination of Drug Abuse (PACEDA).

    Runsewe said the initiative is a welcome development considering the challenges of drug abuse amongst Nigerians, especially the youth.

    Runsewe, who is Nigeria’s number one culture ambassador and a staunch advocate of preserving the country’s cultural identity, observed with very keen interest that drug abuse has never been part of our culture.

    Declaring his stand via telephone conversation, the NCAC DG noted with excitement that the committee has come at the right time to enlighten and educate Nigerians on the dangers of drug abuse.

    He was particularly happy with the committee’s proposal of introducing random drug testing for Nigerians aimed at identifying persons in need of attention and assisting them overcome the challenge of addiction.

    Speaking further, Runsewe cited the Malaysian and Korean experience as countries that have been successful in tackling the menace of drug abuse since the 1990s by aligning closely with the International Drug Policy Consortium which is a global network of organisations and professional networks that specialise in issues related to illegal drug production and use.

    He noted that Nigeria can engage the Consortium as it promotes objective and open debate on the effectiveness, direction and content of drug policies at national and international level while supporting evidence-based policies that are effective in reducing drug-related harm.

    Runsewe  assured  Nigerians that the NCAC will continue to play its part by using the cultural content of our domestic environment to sustain the fight against drug abuse.

     

  • Lagos partners pharmacists on drugs

    Lagos State government is partnering Pharmacists Council of Nigeria (PCN) to prevent the sale of Chinese drugs allegedly containing human parts, Health Commissioner Dr. Jide Idris has said.

    He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Lagos on the sidelines of the Association of General Private Nursing Practitioners (AGPNP) that the government was keeping an eye on areas it felt would be at risk of the drugs.

    The National Agency for Food and Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) had assured Nigerians of safety, warning people to beware of the poisonous drugs.

    Idris said: “Every importation is actually at the purview of the Federal Government, NAFDAC, SON, among others.

    “But, Lagos State is trying its best to collaborate with the Pharmacists Council to regulate and monitor that these drugs don’t get into our markets.

    “Our drug quality laboratory control is also working to check any drug that is brought in, which efficacy is not known before distribution into the health facilities.

    “We also have our task force established by the Lagos State government working to ensure that people are safe.

    “We have not failed in sensitising and enlightening people about the inherent dangers in taking these drugs.’’

    A pharmacist, health and safety professional, Mrs. Fayo Williams, urged the Federal Government to pay attention to every importation right from its country of origin.”

  • Midlife drugs you should not combine: Blood thinners and aspirin

    If you ask a doctor who works in a busy public clinic what are the major medical conditions of mid-lifers frequently encountered these days, he or she may say: stroke, kidney failure, heart failure, diabetes and the complications of such conditions. Even though most people would wish: “Not my portion!”, by midlife some force on earth has managed to apportion these deadly diseases to many people as they make their journey through life.

    Thus there are some drugs that are frequently prescribed and we may have them in our homes.    Let us look at anticoagulants.

    Anticoagulants are used to lower the risk of blood clots.  Blood clots blocking the inside of fine blood vessels can lead to stroke and death. A blood clot (or thrombus) is blood that has changed from a liquid form to a gel-like or semisolid state. A clot is formed when there is a breach or injury in a blood vessel wall that can cause blood leakage and blood loss.  When we have a small cut on our skin, blood flows from superficial blood vessels and then stops because of the blood clot that forms at the site of injury.  The clot blocks the breach and allows repair processes to go on.  Within the body, when a clot forms inside a blood vessel (such as a vein that returns blood towards the heart or an artery that carries blood towards body tissues), it can block (or embolize) the vessel.  This decreases the flow of blood through the vessel causing harm at the site of origin or at the destination of the blood flow.

    Blood clots (thrombi) in the heart tissue can starve the heart of blood nutrients including oxygen and stop the work of the heart in pumping life-giving blood to the rest of the body.  Blood clots in the brain tissue can similarly kill part of the brain and upset the work of the brain in directing the well-being of the body. Blood clots in the lung tissue can kill part of the lung and limit the function of the lung in breathing in oxygen and passing out waste gas, carbon dioxide.  Blood clot anywhere in the body including veins in the legs and blood vessels in the kidneys, can cause disaster.  Thus in persons who are prone to having blood clots, physicians may prescribe a ‘blood thinner’, a drug that inhibits the clotting of blood.

    Certain people with conditions such as heart rhythm disturbance, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, trauma or local injury, or smokers, or people using oral contraceptives may be prone to developing blood clots.  People who have had a heart valve replacement or some other surgeries have a risk of blood clots developing.  People with pancreatic or lung cancer, multiple myeloma, or hematologic malignancies may develop blood clots due to cancer-specific factors and their treatment regimens. These patients are often given prophylactic (preventive) blood thinners.

    Many mid-lifers settle into sedentary life styles with very little mobility; hours at a desk, hours before the TV, hours with a laptop without getting up to stretch and exercise.  This can promote blood clots.  The contraction of muscles (e.g. in the legs) helps to sustain the cycle of movement of blood between the extremes of the body and the heart.   Blood that is not flowing well or that stagnates is prone to clot formation.  Deep vein thrombosis (DVT) occurs  in a deep vein such as in the leg, arm, or groin. It can break loose and cause disaster, for example in the lung (pulmonary embolism), or heart (heart attack). Many mid-lifers reach top level positions at work that are more cerebral than physical.  Mid-lifers need to exercise well and to be at least minimally physically active. Bosses should not avoid menial tasks for their own good health.

    To avoid stroke, heart attack, or peripheral artery disease, blood thinners have become a group of drugs that doctors prescribe often. Blood thinners (technically called anticoagulants) include heparin (e.g. enoxaparin injection, Lovenox); vitamin K antagonist warfarin (Coumadin, Jantoven), acenocoumarol, and phenindione,; direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs):  apixaban (Eliquis), rivaroxaban (Xarelto), edoxaban (Savaysa); and direct thrombin inhibitor dabigatran (Pradaxa).

    A person using a blood thinner who decides to take pain killer aspirin because of some unbearable pain may be precipitating trouble. Aspirin is also a blood thinner in its own way.  It is an antiplatelet drug which means it prevents blood cells called platelets from clumping together during formation of a clot. Aspirin should not be taken with blood thinners because the combination can lead to serious internal and external bleeding all over the body. The person may become bloody.  Similarly a person taking aspirin who mistakenly swallows rat poison (made of coumadin) can end up bleeding to death.

    Blood thinners may interact with certain foods, medicines, vitamins, and alcohol. If you are on a blood thinner, you should discuss with your doctor which pain killer, cold medicine, stomach medicine, herbal medicine, and vitamin products, are safe for you because some of these drugs are a disastrous combination with blood thinners.  Drugs may increase or decrease the function of blood thinners.  The blood thinner needs to work enough to prevent dangerous blood clots but not too much to cause dangerous bleeding.

    Theresa Adebola John is a lecturer at Lagos State University College of Medicine (LASUCOM) and an affiliated researcher at the College of Medicine, University of Tennessee, Memphis.  For any comments or questions on this column, please email bolajohnwritings@yahoo.com or call 08160944635

  • Drugs you should not combine: midlife

    Before we discuss midlife drugs that we should not combine, we take a look at some of the factors responsible for drugs in midlife and which drugs are most likely being taken by mid-lifers.

    Most people are born healthy, normal, and fit.  However, we all pass through a complex world which leaves its marks on us, in our bodies, minds, and spirits, as we live and age.  With age, depending on such factors as diet, lifestyle, and environment, people may develop health problems such as chronic inflammatory conditions, heart and blood pressure problems, metabolic conditions such as high cholesterol and diabetes, physical or functional deformities, mental aberrations, etc.  By the time many people reach midlife (45-60 years of age) they may have to take a drug or some drugs continually or for a long time.  By the time many people become elders (60 plus) they are on drugs for life.  For many midlife and senior people in today’s complex world, polypharmacy is a mainstay part of life.

    In the USA, for example, “people age 65 and older make up 12 percent of the U.S. population, but account for 34 percent of all prescription medication use and 30 percent of all over-the-counter medication use”. https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/501879.  In a survey of the average number of different prescription drugs taken daily by people age 50plus, it was found that people 50-64 years old took an average of 3.31, people 65-74 years old took an average of 4.45 medications, and people 75 years plus took an average of 4.42 different prescription medications daily (https://assets.aarp.org/rgcenter/health/rx_midlife_plus.pdf).  This did not include use of over the counter drugs that they may be using including supplements and herbal products.  It is now recognized that overmedication of older adults has been an issue in the USA.

    What are the most commonly prescribed drugs irrespective of age groups?  Many countries do not have good records but we can get a glimpse from the 2017 GoodRx (https://www.goodrx.com/) list of the ten most-dispensed prescriptions in the USA as of May 2017.  Some of the trade names of these medications are very popular.  These medications are as follows: 1.Vicodin, Norco, Xodol (a combination of the drugs hydrocodone (opioid painkiller) and acetaminophen (painkiller)); 2. Synthroid, Levoxyl, Unithroid (made of the drug levothyroxine used for thyroid deficiency); 3. Delasone, Sterapred (made of the drug prednisone, a corticosteroid used for arthritis and for some cancer symptoms); 4. Amoxil (made of the drug amoxicillin, a penicillin antibiotic used for bacterial infections); 5. Neurontin (made of the drug gabapentin, an anti-epileptics used for seizures and nerve pain); 6. Prinivil, Zestril (made of the drug lisinopril, an angiotensin converting enzyme Inhibitor that is used to combat high blood pressure and heart failure); 7. Lipitor (made of the drug atorvastatin a statin drug used for high cholesterol); 8. Glucophage (made of the drug metformin a biguanide drug used for type 2 diabetes); 9. Zofran (made of the drug ondansetron a serotonin antagonist used for nausea); and 10. Motrin (made of the drug ibuprofen, a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used for pain, fever, and inflammation).

    Another record keeper, IMS Health, indicates that levothyroxine (Synthroid, AbbVie) used for thyroid deficiency continues to be the USA’s most prescribed drug, and aripiprazole (Abilify, Otsuka Pharmaceutical) used to treat psychosis continues to have the highest sales, at nearly $6.9 billion.

    Many mid-lifers and elders may be on 3-5 of such popularly prescribed drugs.  Not enough research is done in most countries on “why polypharmacy for mid-lifers and elders?”  Factors involved may be real clinical needs of a disease prone age group, big business driven prescription habits, abuse of health insurance systems, following the money of mid-lifers and elders (an assumed financially comfortable population),  or simply bad or lazy prescription habits. Mid-lifers and elders themselves should watch that the drugs they take are really needed.

    Let us look at the ten most highly sold drugs and the income they are bringing in to stake holders so that we may examine if we are necessarily or unnecessarily using them. 1. Humira (adalimumab) used for chronic inflammatory conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, Crohn’s disease, and juvenile idiopathic arthritis has made $8.2 billion.  2. Abilify (aripiprazole) used to treat schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder has made $7.9 billion.  3. Sovaldi (sofosbuvir) used to treat chronic hepatitis C has sold $6.9 billion. 4. Crestor (rosuvastatin) a statin drug used used for high cholesterol has sold $5.9 billion.  5. Enbrel (etanercept), used to treat moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, moderate to severe plaque psoriasis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis, and moderate to severe polyarticular juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) has sold $5.9 billion. 6. Harvoni (ledipasvir and sofosbuvir) is a combination pill used to treat hepatitis C and has made $5.3 billion. 7.  Nexium (esomeprazole) used to treat acid reflux and stomach ulcers has made $5.3 billion. 8. Advair Diskus (fluticasone and salmeterol) oral inhaler, a combination of a corticosteroid and a beta2-adrenergic bronchodilator, used to treat asthma and chronic bronchitis has sold $4.7 billion.  9. Lantus Solostar (insulin glargine),   a long-acting insulin, used to treat diabetes mellitus to control high blood sugar has sold $4.7 billion.  10.  Remicade (infliximab) used to treat rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, and ankylosing spondylitis has sold $4.6 billion.  Most probably, mid-lifers and elders contribute to much, if not most, of these sales. To be continued.

    Theresa Adebola John is a lecturer at Lagos State University College of Medicine (LASUCOM) and an affiliated researcher at the College of Medicine, University of Tennessee, Memphis.  For any comments or questions on this column, please email bolajohnwritings@yahoo.com or call 08160944635

  • Drugs that destroy

    In our present world, drug education is important to give to youths as they mature just as they receive sex education.  Parents and teachers, for the sake of their wards, also need sufficient understanding of drugs.  Leaders, government, rulers, and religious authorities also all need sufficient knowledge of drugs in today’s world.

    Use of prescription drugs may result in serious problems including fatality when such drugs are combined with other drugs or substances such as alcohol.   Pharmacologists call this drug-drug interaction.

    Prescription drugs may also become harmful if used wrongly or against the instruction of the doctor, pharmacist, nurse or other health care provider. Clinicians refer to this as non-compliance.

    Some people react oddly to drugs used in normal dosage and normal conditions because of their own genetic make-up.  When they react too much, this is called supersensitivity.  When they fail to react, this is called refractoriness.

    Some people are allergic to certain drugs, for example penicillin.  This means that if the drug gets in contact with them, their immune system over reacts.  They end up with symptoms such as hives, rash, itching and a life threatening reaction called anaphylaxis. Anaphylaxis involves multiple systems of the body. This condition develops fast (even within seconds or minutes) and the person can be saved from imminent death if promptly injected with adrenaline and treated in an emergency room in hospital. Thus one should not take drugs that one may be allergic to.

    Some people have enzymes that destroy a particular type of drugs too fast such that the drug is ineffective.  This is dangerous if the drug is supposed to be life-saving or life sustaining.

    Social drug use for recreation or private drug use for emotional escape has destroyed many lives simply because the victims were ignorant of the effects of drugs or were deceived by wrong information about drugs.  Drug abuse is a nontherapeutic utilization of drugs in a manner that generates risk. Drug abuse is a challenge for many governments, parents, teachers and other authorities as there are no adequate means to fight or eradicate this social ill.

    Considering the various examples of how drugs can destroy a person mentioned above, it is difficult to identify some drugs as more dangerous than others.  All drugs are potentially dangerous.

    However some drugs and substances are notoriously dangerous.  Clinical experience, social experience, and the evidence of the cost of such drug use on the individual or the society, on property, on relationships, etc.  underscore some drugs and substances as

    most dangerous and these include alcohol, heroine, fentanyl, cocaine and cigarettes. They are not the most toxic drugs, their toxic levels being less than a millionth of that of botulinum toxin, but botulinum toxin is not notorious for trouble.

    The evil in the use of drugs is in the result of the drug use.  These may include physical damage to body organs from the brain and nerves to blood vessels, the heart, the lungs, the sensory organs, the endocrine system, etc.  Evil effects may also be on the mind with psychological, emotional, and mental derangement.  Evil effects may also be on the character, including drug dependence, criminality, and dysfunctionality.  Evil effects could also be on the family including financial losses, broken dreams, and family breakups. Evil effects could also be on the society including insecurity, consumption of tax-payers’ money, and lack of progress.

    In the next series of articles, we shall discuss drugs that destroy. Some of them are legitimate drugs legitimately used but accidentally dangerous.  Some of them are legitimate drugs illegitimately used.  Some are illegitimate drugs used criminally.

    Some of them are already in our homes and we know they are there.  Some of them are already in our homes unknown to us. Some of them are never brought into our homes but are used by  household members and can potentially affect our homes.

    Drugs are important for health and life but they are also destroyers of health and life – double edged swords.  The economic value of drug usage is humungous and the capitalists would have as many people as possible use drugs. It is important for people to understand the need to use drugs rationally and safely as well as freely (not under compulsion).

    Theresa Adebola John is a lecturer at Lagos State University College of Medicine (LASUCOM) and an affiliated researcher at the College of Medicine, University of Tennessee, Memphis.  For any comments or questions on this column, please email bolajohnwritings@yahoo.com or call 08160944635

  • Our Girls: Killers, Drugs and Potholes

    It is now four years + since our Chibok Girls were viciously kidnapped on April 15, 2014. However we await the release of the remaining Chibok girls and the Dapchi girl-child, 15 year old, Leah Sharibu. Is President Buhari’s team stopping the killings? No!!! In Adamawa, 12 people killed and 15 killed in a Zamfara village and life goes on. If Buhari will not take adequate containment measures, how can it end? Buhari should immediately empty the country’s barracks and transfer all soldiers to the state battlefronts to save the indigenous farming communities across Benue, Taraba, Plateau, Nassarawa States and 21 other attacked states. Soldiers have no right to be in officers and NCO messes and barracks when their C-in-C has informed the country that the herders’ attacks have sinister links with Ghaddafi terrorists confirming that we are at war by an infiltrating army in collaboration with known violent herders. This killing must stop before elections. President Buhari, this killing will stop your re-election. Far too many Nigerian voters have been traumatized directly and been attacked or forced to evacuate their ancestral lands by Fulani herder terrorists. Nobody will forget by 2019 election.  Unless Buhari creates a miracle, his ‘I am MR Clean’ will not cleanse him or his government of the ongoing tragedy of the herders’ terrorism and he will lose the election on ‘security’. Nowadays we talk of ‘security architecture’ so Buhari should review the ‘security architecture’ in every state and hamlet!

    The drug epidemic among the youth has finally hit the media and is highlighted by the outcry against Codeine containing cough mixtures and Tramadol. The vulnerable youth are educated and not educated, wealthy and poor. They mix these drugs with hemp, power drinks and other medications in an unregulated, unmeasured dangerous ‘Champaign Cocktail’ and drink ‘innocently’ from a soft drink bottle. Why? The usual suspects in every country – boredom, joblessness, availability of funds through stealing or scams or family money, and fads of peer pressure. Add medical treatment gone wrong, especially the misuse of painkillers, sometimes in collusion with medical staff. It is difficult to measure pain as it is a subjective personal perception prone to be exaggerated. There are too many important prevention steps that Nigerian leaders at every level have refused to institutionalize, thus forcing the whole country to abandon our responsibility to provide prevention to the youth, the physically and mentally challenged and the elderly. Already Ebola rears its head again. However it was expected that the Ministry of Education would involve the Ministries of Health, Transport, Sports, Youth and other ministries to come up with a ‘Life Skill’ Course Textbook teaching about the above topics. State and Federal Level must take such important educational information from co-curricular to curricular mainstream and include the subject ‘Life Skill Education’ as an examination tested subject.

    For many of our youth such prevention measures are too late. We failed them! Our ineptitude is now causing a serious drug use epidemic among our youth and young adults. This has arisen partly from stupid adventurism of youth and also for a lack of being taught the Dangers of Drugs’ as a classroom subject all added to a backfired culture cultivated by Corporate Nigeria creating ‘Instant Millionairism’ with no work done. Since 1994, 24 years ago, Educare Trust was probably the first youth NGO to pioneer an education programme in communities, schools and universities aimed at avoiding youth hazards captured in an Educare Trust acronym called  the SAD Syndrome= Smoking & Sex & Sickle Cell, AIDS & Alcohol & Abortion & Addiction, Drugs & Dangerous Driving and recommended to our Youth to be GLAD –Good Lungs, Abstinence, Diligent Driving and Democracy-Voting at 18. All this was done as a ‘Life Skill Project’ under co-curricular activities with willing schools numbering in the thousands and cooperative teaching staff and also on NTA, BCOS and elsewhere to reach a wider target audience comprising many millions.

    Certainly the time has come for not just NGOs but government Health and education ministry joint serious consistent drug surveillance and quarterly reports from such surveillance in student facilities, hostels and boarding houses. Governments must learn that government achievement is not just measured in statistics like financial figures on inflation and job rates. Students must be treated like athletes and have urine drug testing in and out of examination time.

    I want to ask us what type of evil animal are we that we have approximately 1000 major life-threatening craters and big potholes, some dug up every night, every night to criminally promote ‘go-slow’ and sellers’ business or actual vehicle crashes and robbery, on old sections of the Lagos Ibadan Road. They are begging to kill us and we are begging that ‘Road Surveillance and Repair’, denied us ever since the misleading hype of the 400 road engineers in 1999, be implemented by road crews filling temporarily such potholes and craters until contractor corporation or ministry of Works, deem it fit ‘to save lives today’ by filling these craters and bad patches, while waiting for the big bucks denied the road by an apparently greedy, selfish NASS. We do not even put Highway Code recommended ‘Warning Signs’ before major potholes but ‘FRoadSafetyC’ and Police checkpoints gather nearby. What work do they actually do?

     

    • NB: Uncover ‘I LOVE NIGERIA’ KNOWLEDGEABLE CANDIDATES for 2019 -SDG 16.  

  • Student-leader declares war on drugs

    The President of the Adeleke University Students’ Association (A.U.S.A), Comrade Tomiwa Fadeyi, has said his administration will join the university management in its war against drug abuse and other vices.

    He spoke in Ede, Osun State, during his inauguration.

    He called on  his colleagues to appreciate the good foundation that the university management had laid for them.

    Described as the youngest president since the university’s inception, Fadeyi regretted that the future of many youths had been damaged because of their involvement with drugs.

    He  said: “Our team shall join hands with our parents in the job of administering this institution to ensure that we recover lives of our peers that are already being threatened by drugs and other social vices. We will also be resolute in our fight against fresh people getting attracted.

    “As youths and future leader of this nation, we owe it a duty to ourselves and the country as a whole to toe the path of honour and strive to better the lot of our people. We hope to get the highest level of cooperation of Management that would make confrontation less attractive as we seek improved welfare for our members.

    “The overall commitment to building a sustainable brand for Adeleke University shall remain paramount and non-negotiable even as we pledge to continue to appreciate the good gestures of the owners and management. This institution.”

    The Vice-Chancellor, Professor Ekundayo Alao, urged the new officials to be responsible leaders and shun vices that could lead to the termination of their membership. He reminded them of their primary assignment and the need to ensure that the investments of their parents were not wasted.

    Alao reiterated the determination of the management of the institution to nurture first-rate young men to pull the nation out of its abyss.

  • Woman drugs, kidnaps friend

    A 26-year-old nursing mother, Mrs. Adetola Adelani, has told detectives how her friend, Jackie, lured her to a hotel in Ajah to be kidnapped.

    Adelani, who was allegedly kidnapped on April 30, was freed on May 15, after her abductors withdrew N126,000 from her husband’s account through his Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card in her possession.

    The victim told police detectives that she left home around 1pm on April 30 to buy petrol when she received a call from Jackie for a meeting at City Spice Hotel, Ajah.

    Briefing reporters on the incident, Police Commissioner Imohimi Edgal said: “On reaching the hotel, she met Jackie with someone she introduced as Ahmed Olaoluwa. Her friend then collected a whitish powdery substance suspected to be cocaine from Olaoluwa and gave to the victim to sniff that it would be good for her.

    “She sniffed the power and became weak. In her state of stupor, she was led by Olaoluwa and one Muri Adeleye, who later joined them to a United Bank for Africa (UBA) Automated Teller Machine (ATM) gallery in Ikota, where she was made to withdraw the sun of N126,000 for them from her husband’s account.

    “She was kept in City Spice Hotel, Ikota for 24 hours and was later moved to Mirage Hotel. She was again taken by the suspects to withdraw more money only for them to realise that the account has been blocked.

    “This made the suspects to collect her phone and detain her for two weeks hoping that the account would be unblocked for them to get more money.”

    On why the account was blocked, Edgal said the victim’s husband suspected something was amiss after he received a debit alert of N126,000 from his account and his wife’s number was not going through.

    He said: “After calling her mother to find out if she was at their residence in Surulere and got a negative response, the victim’s husband, Michael Salawu, was said to have gone to the nearest bank to block his account.

    “When the nursing mother was not seen till about 7pm, the police boss said her mother lodged a complaint at the Anti-Kidnapping Unit and an investigation commenced.

    “Two suspects Ahmed Olaoluwa, 41, and Muri Adeleye, 29, were arrested on May 19, at Mirage Hotel, Ikota. They confessed to the crime. Victim’s phone and various charms were recovered from them.”

  • 25 held as NDLEA seizes 122kg of drugs

    The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has arrested 25 suspects and seized 122.78kg of banned drugs in Gombe State since January.

    Commandant Aliyu Adole told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) yesterday in Gombe that the agency convicted 20 of the suspects and sentenced them to prison terms.

    Five are in custody.

    He said: “Within this period, we removed 122.78kg drugs from circulation.

    “Last month, we recovered 92.39kg compared to February when we had 543g.”

    Adole urged stakeholders to join in the fight against drug abuse.

    He said parents and guardians should advise their children and wards to desist from forming gangs and joining thugs, which, he noted, encouraged drug abuse.

    “I advise you to talk to your children. If you do not talk to them, somebody outside the family will talk to them and it will be dangerous.

    “Politicians have their children in higher institutions of learning; if you allow your children to follow bad politicians, you will be the loser,” the commandant said.

     

  • Ahmed calls for state of emergency on drugs

    Kwara State Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed has called on the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on drug and substance abuse.

    He spoke when the National President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Pharmacist Ahmed Yakassi, visited him at the Government House in Ilorin.

    According to him, the country is challenged with increased crime, such as kidnapping, robbery, cultism and insurgency, largely induced by drug abuse, usually among youths.

    He said the right steps must be taken by governments at all levels towards curbing drug abuse which is spreading across all strata of society.

    The governor noted that drug abuse goes hand-in-hand with violence, stressing that the most theatres of violence and crime in the world have associated problems of drugs and substance abuse.

    Ahmed advocated a tripartite arrangement between governments, regulatory authorities and the Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN) to form platforms to dissuade youths from drug abuse, especially the misuse of over-the-counter and prescription drugs

    He said: “The level at which our youths have imbibed drug abuse is becoming alarming – at the basic education, secondary and tertiary level, it is a very serious situation.

    “It will require all hands to be on deck. Everybody must be involved in advocacy to ensure that all areas which contribute to the use of drugs are properly handled to give us a better society.”

    He promised that the government will improve and compliment the number of PSN in the state, and ensure proper drug dispensation to users. Yakassai said their association was engaged in fighting fake and counterfeit drugs in the country, to ensure sanity in drug administration.