Drugs, Politics & History

by Stepney Emeh

edited by Juwah C. Awele

Welcome to the first of a series of discussions on a range of topics I feel is currently affecting and shaping our existence in what I like to call “today’s Nigeria” and I would like to discuss with the youth, yes that may include you.  

For starters, I would like to talk about the current endemic use of drugs that has swept the young people in and of this country. This particular topic is very important to me for the mere fact that I am a health professional and have seen, first hand, the effect of drug abuse and even medication consumed in very high quantities.

From my research and experiences, I will give you a very simplified classification of the type of drugs currently in circulation in Nigeria and which I believe can be put into two groups:

HARD drugs, group one (1), examples of which include heroin, cocaine, amphetamine, ecstasy, GHB, and alcohol;

SOFT drugs, group two (2), examples of which include cannabis (hash and marijuana are gotten from this) and valium.

When you talk to a generous number of youth in an attempt to find out why they use these drugs, hard or soft, you come to realise that a majority of these young people began substance abuse as a result of peer pressure. Another sizeable number say they started using drugs because a parent or older person at home was a consumer and still some others might site medical reasons such as marijuana for severe headaches, as an anticonvulsant or to help with glaucoma.

The topic of drug abuse seems to have re-emerged in current discourse because there seems to be an increase in drug related deaths in today’s Nigeria, which begs the following questions.

·      Why do we glorify the use of drugs?

·      Why is excessive smoking and drinking currently the new ‘cool’?

·      Why is there a surge in the consumption of drugs?; and

·      Why are the real medical implications of these drugs not being publicised to the youth?

I believe a single response that cuts across these questions is that perceptions are disconnected from reality. The perception that the drugs are just for recreation or that drugs help the users escape daily life struggles are disconnected from the reality that the use of these drugs is slowly, but surely, sucking life out of our youth, the reality of the medical complications.

Before attempting to solve a problem, you must have acknowledged that a problem exists, you must agree that there is one. I may not pull out all the possible facts and figures to convince you but from my experience in the field, I can tell you that there is one and if you are not in a position to see it now, then know that if nothing is done about the current trend then it may soon be clear for you to also see.

We proceed to possible solutions.

The first step is sensitization. We need to let young people know the hazards of snorting powders, smoking combinations and injecting cocktails and this starts from home. It may be a sibling, neighbour, friend, cousin or spouse, advising them, showing them or telling them the adverse effect of these substances. Whoever it is, the message may go a long way in reducing abuse.

The second step is sensitization phase-II. This time led by the community, government and/or corporate bodies., advertisements that will act as reinforcements to the home-based messages need to be put in place through various media platforms – print (newspapers to billboards), audio and visual – to engage and educate our youth. The conversation on substance abuse needs to be driven aggressively by all and considered critically.

The third step is control. How does the government reduce the availability of or at least strictly supervise the use of drugs? We clearly can see that declaring drugs 'illegal' isn't working. The main issue here has been reported on several fronts as the lack of financing for our anti-drug agencies. The NDLEA, NAFDAC and the other outfits need to be adequately funded and personnel of these agencies need to be trained and re-trained to give them the required skills to tackle this new high. The current laws need to be implemented to the letter and a nationwide crack down on drug peddlers needs to be carried out.

The fourth step is adequate rehabilitation. Ideally every teaching hospital should have a well-equipped rehabilitation centre for drug addicts undergoing treatment. Also private individuals should be encouraged to help in building rehabilitation centres. Rehabilitation is important because there is a need to reintegrate people who have fallen prey to addiction into the un-addicted world.

Let us not pretend that this issue does not exist because it is very real. It is an issue that is eating into our youth and you might well know that the Nigerian youth constitute a greater percentage of the general population and are a great potential labour force. A sub-productive younger generation means lower productivity in the nation which in turn means decreased economic viability and possible disaster for the future.

These are just my thoughts and I felt I should share them.

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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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