The Nation Newspaper

Tag: narcotic

  • NDLEA nabs two suspects in possession of cocaine in Kano

    The Kano Command of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA)  has nabbed  two suspects in possession of 2.927 kilograms of Cocaine in the state.

    The NDLEA Commander in Kano, Dr. Ibrahim Abdul who disclosed this while briefing Newsmen on Saturday in Kano said the suspects were arrested in a hotel along Katsina road in the city.

    He noted that, the arrest was first of its kind in the Kano Command similar to its recent discovery of an Indian Hemp farm in the state for the first time also.

    He explained that for over a month, the command has been trailing and monitoring the movement of the suspects following an intelligent report by its men.

    He added that investigation revealed that the suspects were arrested while swallowing the Cocaine to be transported to Sudan en route to Saudi Arabia.

    Abdul said that the arrest was part of the command’s effort towards bringing to the issues of drug abuse and trafficking to end in the state,

    “An onslaught meted on the hard drug barons resulted in the arrest of two suspects, Abdul Abubakar and Ibrahim Mustapha and also the seizure of 2.927 kilograms of Cocaine for the first time in the command,” he said.

    Abdul further explained that during the month, the command had arrested 4 suspects in possession of a pistol along Kano-Gwarzo road on their way to Funtua in Katsina State.

    NDLEA commander said that during the month in review, NDLEA had dislodged 50 hotspots within and outside the metropolis, adding that such success was recorded due to the command’s tireless efforts in fight against any form of drug abuse.

    “Within the month of April, we succeeded in seizing 836.927 kilograms of exhibits which includes 9.927 Cocaine, 250 kilograms of Cannabis Savita, 560 kilograms of Tramadol, and also a foreign drug imported from South Africa called Khat with 24 kilograms quantity”, he said.

    Abdul explained that the command had also couseled and rehabilitated 10 regular clients while 50 drug users were refered for brief intervention.

    According to him, the command had secured the conviction of five drug peddlers while 92 cases were still pending.

    Abdul also disclosed that recently four Airport officials were arrested  conniving with the peddlers to put exhibits in passengers luggage while traveling to Saudi Arabia.

    Responding to newsmen, the suspected Cocaine pushers admitted their offence, adding that it was their first time of involving in such criminal act.

  • NDLEA arrests woman with suspected narcotic substance

    NDLEA arrests woman with suspected narcotic substance

    The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) on Saturday said it had arrested a 57-year-old woman with substance suspected to be cocaine.

    A statement in Lagos by the agency’s spokesman, Mr Mitchell Ofoyeju, said the woman was apprehended at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos.

    It said that the suspect was Saudi Arabia-bound, and that the substance was concealed in her luggage.

    “The suspect, who claimed to be going on a pilgrimage to Jedda, Saudi Arabia, had all the paraphernalia of a pilgrim, save for the narcotic content of her luggage.

    “The two parcels of white powdery substance that tested positive for cocaine were carefully concealed inside her luggage.

    “The suspect with a valid Egypt Air ticket from Lagos to Saudi Arabia was arrested with 1.595kg of cocaine.

    “The cocaine which was concealed in a false bottom of her bag was discovered during routine check on passengers at the departure hall.

    “We had to cut the bag open to recover the cocaine because of the way it was neatly concealed. She was immediately arrested and the case is currently under investigation,” the statement stated.

    The statement also quoted Chairman of NDLEA, Mr Muhammad Abdallah, as describing the suspect’s action as “condemnable”.

    “Smuggling cocaine to Saudi Arabia under any guise is condemnable.

    “It is good that she was arrested here because drug trafficking attracts capital punishment in Saudi.

    “Apart from saving her from execution in Saudi, the prompt arrest also protected our country from disrepute.

    “The agency will not relent in the fight against illicit drug production, trafficking and abuse” Abdallah said.  (NAN)

  • NDLEA arraigns man over alleged attempt to export narcotic substance

    NDLEA arraigns man over alleged attempt to export narcotic substance

    The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) yesterday arraigned a middle-aged man, Emmanuel Nzubeka, at the Federal High Court, Lagos, over alleged attempt to export 1.050 kilogrammes of Methamphetamine.

    Nzubeka is standing trial on one-count of exporting narcotic substance.

    He pleaded not guilty.

    The Prosecutor, Mr Augustine Nwagu, said the accused was caught with the narcotic substance on June 4, at the SAHCOL Export Shade of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos.

    He said the substance was found inside Nzubeka’s luggage, adding that Methamphetamine was a drug similar to cocaine and heroin.

    Nwagu said the alleged offence contravened Section 11 (b) of the NDLEA Act Cap N30, Laws of Federation 2004.

    “Due to the plea of innocence by the accused, I urge this court to remand him in prison custody pending trial,’’ the prosecutor said.

    Nwagu also said that the court should refuse to hear any bail application because of the gravity of the offence.

    But Counsel to the accused, Mr Oreofe Ogunleye, said that the offence was the kind that an accused can be granted bail.

    “I ask this court to neglect the prayer of the prosecutor and instead grant bail on liberal terms to my client,’’ he said.

    Justice Mohammed Yunusa said the accused should be remanded in prison and adjourned the case to September 3 for ruling on bail application.

  • Drugs you should know about: Narcotic analgesics and their phenomena

    Drugs you should know about: Narcotic analgesics and their phenomena

    Morphine-like or opioid pain killers act on our body nerves that bear opioid receptors. There are several types of opioid receptors such as the mu, kappa, and delta receptors. Different opioid drugs and chemicals act on these receptor subtypes with their own affinities (power to attach to the receptor) and efficacy (power to produce a biological response through the receptor). Thus the opioid drugs vary in their prominent and overall biological effects or responses produced in the body. For example, while codeine is simply used as a cough suppressant, heroine is a dangerous euphoria-producing drug of addiction.

    Although opioids cause various effects in the body including in the gastrointestinal tract (constipation), respiratory tract (slowing the breathing rate), and in the urinary tracts (inability to pass out urine), it is their effects in the central nervous system that tend to generate the greatest interests. They produce pain relief and loss of sensation to pain (analgesia), euphoria (sense of well-being and elevated mood); and sedation, thus distracting a person from painful illness and helping a person to relax. Dangerous phenomena associated with opioid effects are tolerance (habituation), dependence, and addiction.

    Tolerance means that a certain dose, after some time, will no longer be effective in producing a desired effect and an increased dose will be needed to produce that desired effect. Thus a person with an opioid habit whether for medical use (e.g. pain relief) or social use (e.g. euphoria) would eventually need more and more finances for his drug supplies. Opioid addicts have been involved in financial crises, theft, and such social offshoots of drug habituation.

    Dependence means that a person who has been using opioids becomes naturalized to the presence of the opioid in his or her body. He or she now functions normally when the opioid is presence and abnormally when the opioid is absent. He or she depends on opioids to be normal. The dependent person takes the drug for the good effects expected.

    Addiction means that a person who has been using opioids is psychologically controlled by the effects of opioids. The relationship between the addict and the effects of the drugs is akin to that of the slave and master. The addict is enslaved by the drug effects and is abnormal in both the presence and absence of the drug in his or her body. The addict takes the drug indifferent to good or harm caused by the drug and sustains a compulsion to take the drug.

    Prescription opioids such as Vicodin® (containing hydrocodone) and OxyContin® (containing oxycodone) that are officially used as pain killers are often obtained and abused for social use. Teenagers and young adults are often involved in such habits.

    The tolerant person can withstand opioid concentrations that normally cause fatal respiratory (breathing) distress. Inexperienced users taking the same levels as addicts take can die suddenly. Teenagers and young adults should be warned never to copy the habits of their peers.

    Physical dependence is characterized by an abstinence or withdrawal syndrome. The person feels unwell if he or she does not take the drug. The more tolerant the user, the more dependent the user will beand alsothe greater will be the intensity of the withdrawal syndrome that can be experienced by the user. For morphine the withdrawal syndrome progresses as follows. In the first 8-12 hours of absence of the drug from the body, the person experiences anxiety, craving for the drug, coughing, sneezing, shivering, and sweating. At 20-30 hours, the person experiences vomiting and cramps. At 36-72 hours, the person experiences tremor, rigidity, convulsions, and piloerection (goose bumps and erection of body hairs). There is difference in timing for development of withdrawal symptoms for various opioid drugs.

    On the molecular level, tolerance is caused by the adjustments of opioid receptor mechanisms in the body. Thus tolerance to morphine, for example, can lead to tolerance to another opioid drug since they act on the same opioid receptors. Opioid cross-tolerance is also another phenomenon of interest for both medical and social usage of these drugs.

    To be continued…

    Dr. ’Bola John is a biomedical scientist based in Nigeria and in the USA. For any comments or questions on this column, please email bolajohnwritings@yahoo.com or call 07028338910 or 08160944635

     

  • Drugs you should know about: Narcotic pain killers

    In ancient Greek mythology, Hypnos was the personification ofsleep or the god of sleep and his son Morpheus was the god of dreams. Narcissus or Narkissos was a hunter who was beautiful and when he saw his own reflection in the river he fell in love with it and could not leave it and died there. In ancient Roman mythology, Somnuswas the god of sleep, a son of Night and brother of Death. Some medical words and expressions are derived from these mythical entities, e.g. somnambulism (sleep walking); hypnosis (sleepiness); hypnotic (a drug that produces drowsiness or sleep), andnarcotic (a drug that produces numbness and stupor).

    The drug morphine which produces drowsiness and relief of pain was named after Morpheus. Morphine has been in the news over and over again throughout the recent history of mankind because of its multipurpose usage including as a social drug with potential to cause serious addiction. There are many drugs that act like morphine. Some of them are natural compounds found in plants and collectively they are called opiates. Others are various chemicals with similar pharmacological actions as morphine and they are called opioids.The opiates and opioids are narcotic pain relievers (narcotic analgesics).

    Morphine was discovered in the poppy or opium plant whose botanical name is Papaversominferum. It is used as a strong pain reliever especially in surgery. Another natural opiate is codeine which is used in cough syrups. Keen interest in these compound led scientists to develop semi synthetic and synthetic compounds such as pethidine and fentanyl whichare popularly used narcotic analgesics in clinical settings.

    Already within the human body there are natural chemicals that produce morphine-like effects. These are the endogenous opioids and there are a few groups of them; encephalins, endorphins, and dynorphins. Another such endogenous compound is orphanin. These are natural pain relievers that our bodies produce.

    While aspirin-like drugs (NSAIDs) act on prostaglandins, the narcotic analgesics, typified by morphine, act directly on pain conducting nerves that bear opioid chemical receptors. Activation of the receptors leads to inhibition of pain transmission through the spinal cord and brain and in the periphery of the body. Morphine-like drugs produce a combination of effects such as:

    •Reduction of nociception (pain sensation).

    •Analgesia(no pain sensation).

    •Reduction of the affective component of pain (psychological distress) so that pain may be felt but one is not distressed by it.

    •Euphoria or elevated mood and relief of the anxiety associated with pain hence the tendency for abuse (addicts use these drugs in order to experience the elevated mood).

    •Sometimes dysphoria (lower mood or bad mood) rather than euphoria occurs.

    •Respiratory depression due to dulling of the respiratory reflex that responds to increased carbon dioxide in the blood. Opioid overdose can be fatal because the victim stops breathing.

    •Suppression of the cough reflex (hence codeine is used in cough syrups).

    •Nausea and vomiting by direct stimulation of the vomiting reflex (this can be a serious side effect of opioids).

    •Constriction of the pupil, a useful indicator of opioid overdose. The classic opioid addict has pin-point pupils.

    Beyond the brain and nervous system opioid actions produce characteristic:

    •Decreased gastrointestinal movements (decreased peristalsis) and increased sphincter tone. This results in prolonged transit time for gut contents from the stomach to the anus allowing more water to be absorbed and constipation to develop. Morphine is usuallygiven in combination with a laxative.

    •Urinary retention due to increased tone of the bladder sphincter.

    •Histamine release (anaphylactoid reaction). Only morphine does this by degranulating mast cells (allergy cells). There is redness, itchiness, and oedema at the site of injection. Asthmatics should not use morphine because of the two possibilities of central respiratory depression and peripheral histamine release. To be continued…

    Dr. ‘Bola John is a biomedical scientist based in Nigeria and in the USA. For any comments or questions on this column, please email bolajohnwritings@yahoo.com or call 07028338910 or 08160944635