Drug Abuse: A User's Perspective

by Tosan Alexis Dorti and Juwah C. Awele

Marcy McNeal

“It was Friday #tgif and I was on campus. As usual the week was dull and mentally exhausting: boring lecturers, electives, silly lectures, project, unnecessary tests, and the list could go on but who cares. It was Friday, it was time to chill and relax before the world would try to come and kill me with stress. I cannot kill myself abeg and so, what better way to begin the weekend than with a couple of finely rolled chocolate royales or if you like, skunk, grass, Mary-Jane, weed, ganja but officially cannabis. They say Mary-Jane is the starter pack for serious drug abuse, hard stuff like cocaine and hero but I say whatever, who cares.

It was now late in the evening and only two distantly spaced sodium-vapour street lights brightened the road behind my hostel with a deep shade of orange. Brunei, that’s my hostel, was a pack of self-contained flats starting at a basement and ending up on a second floor. The rooms were stacked in a square with a smaller, parallel square-courtyard at the center and an old and scarcely used road passing right behind, behind being the face of the old box looking away from the main campus. The front of each of one hundred flats pointed towards the center of the yard and each, except some basement flats with only rear windows, had a balcony out back. The ambience behind Brunei was on point; the sky was blank and starless, the deep orange from the lamps was bright but didn’t shine far and there was perfect silence but for the crickets in the distance. But even the noise from the pests somehow made sense, it jived with the setting, I lit up!

What better scenery could I have asked for? I was at the rear balcony of the abandoned kitchenette on the corner of the second floor, and I struck my blue-headed match stick against the wall. It exploded in an instant with the aggression of an RPG-7 anti-tank rocket launcher but then crackled and fizzled in the seconds that followed into the void of near silence and a steady flame. I guided that flame against the wind to the joint already waiting between my lips, it made contact with the tip and I drew a deep breath. The burning embers of my smoke stood out in the darkness, resonating with the deep orange of the lamps down below. A wisp of smoke from the smoldering tip ascended just for the sake of ascension as I took in that breath, great stuff, I exhaled.”

A friend collapses today and another suffers a stroke the day after, the common denominator, drugs. Drug abuse is a dangerous present day phenomenon with the ‘simple’ use of narcotics being viewed as normal in Nigeria and many places around the world. Stimulants, sedatives or any of their many appellations are becoming a serious issue just as the crack epidemic was in the US in the 80's and early 90's, leading to the then President Richard Nixon tagging it Public Enemy Number 1.

The blue watermark of rophynol aka rochi on the tongue is evidence for why another bro’s brain skips the beat midway through every sentence. The demand for codeine has gone beyond just its ability to alleviate cough and expanded into its ‘soft drink’ phase. It has become necessary that we as a people stand up and fight for a cause that is not only economically but also socially uplifting, it has become pertinent that we once again go up against Public Enemy Number 2 – sorry, corruption has been hugging the top spot on Nigeria’s top public enemy billboard for over fifty years.

One can only wonder what the drug enforcement agency is doing - a division that was created by Decree 48 0f 1989. "There is thriving Indian hemp cultivation in the South-west and South-south geo-political zones of Nigeria." They ought to go after the manufacturers and those who profit from the business rather than the users who are an endangered species, just like Kwankwaso did in Kano at the inception of his administration in 2011. "If you take an estimate of 10 boys particularly in Kano, seven will be on drugs." The former Director General of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Mr. Otunba Ipinmisho, says that there is no money to follow the barons, dope pushers, candy men or whatever you call them. 

Let’s get clinical. Drug abuse technically is the deliberate use of chemical substances for reasons other than intended medical purposes and which result in physical, mental, emotional or social impairment of the user. Peer pressure seems to be what launches so many onto this path, especially young people who are trying to fit in, who want to belong, be cool. #Newsflash, parents need to teach their sons and daughters what the heck self-esteem is, they need to teach their kids that no one needs drugs to be cool, to belong - just do you.

The illicit drug business is one of the top 3 consumer based business worldwide even with it having no need for advertisement just like ijebu garri. The consequences; crack babies, dead livers, damaged kidney, sagging boobs, destroyed nose linings, Nigeria losses $2bn to India monthly for medical tourism, the list could go on but who cares. Nigeria’s poor health budget does not have time to deal with the repercussions of trifle things as dipsomania so, a word is enough for the wise and as they say "If e no good for your brain, QUIT" #PeaceOut

Drugs and Young People

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