The business of selling illegal substances is thriving in Nigeria as security agencies arrest more illegal drug dealers and confiscate their wares, according to available data.
In 2019, there was 274 percent increase in narcotics seizures and arrests, according to data released Thursday by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This means that more Nigerians are using illegal substances as increased arrests indicate a growing market.
Nigeria’s demography constitutes 70-75 percent of youths under 30 years, and the data simply indicate a rise in the number of young people abusing dangerous drugs and substances.
Compared to 163,684kg of narcotics confiscated in 2018, 612,547.89kg were pulled out of the illicit drug market in 2019.
However, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) saw a 3-percent drop in the arrest of suspected players, driving the circulation of narcotics from 9,779 nabbed in 2018 to 9,479 in 2019.
Juliana Ugwu, a counsellor in the Drug Demand Reduction Unit of NDLEA, Lagos State Command, attributes the progress to efforts by officers and the unrelenting habit of the general public who abuse substances. She explains that the economic downturn has also been a factor encouraging people to seek illegal means of eking out income, despite the risk.
Following some of the seizures, destruction exercise was carried out in Borno, Plateau, Lagos commands. “Our target is to channel our energies towards treatment and rehabilitation. We want to focus on demand reduction because we believe that when demand is reduced, supply will seize. When dealers do not get patronage, of course, they will go out of business,” Ugwu informs BusinessDay.
“In terms of prosecution, 9,418 suspects were arraigned in 2019 as against 9,779 in 2018, while 1,120 were convicted in 2019 as against 1,220 in 2018.
The North-Central geo-political zone led the highest number of drug cases with 517,711.69 cases recorded while the South-West and South-South zones followed with 44,744.13 and 28,885.85 cases, respectively. The North-East region recorded the least with 4,490.81 drug cases in 2019,” the report states.
A total of 397 counselling cases were reported in 2019 as against 730 in 2018, while 397 counselling were concluded in 2019 as against 440 in 2018.
Cocaine, Codeine, Rophypnol, Swinol, 502, and Shisha among others are narcotics mostly abused by Nigerians in the quest to heighten pleasure.
The renewed focus, Ugwu says, is to intensify counselling, sensitisation, enlightenment campaigns, and offering of coping mechanisms to those struggling to get out of addiction. For instance, Swinol, another brand of Flunitrazepam, is a powerful hypnotic drug that depresses the central nervous system (CNS).
It naturally works as sedatives applied in the treatment of anxiety, insomnia, sleep disorders, or seizure ailments.
But when mixed with alcohol, another CNS depressant, it could result in suppression, stupor, respiratory depression, and even death.
Despite the ban on over-the-counter purchase of narcotics, drug dealers and abusers are unrelenting. A ‘National Survey on Drug Use in Nigeria’ shows that over 14 million Nigerians abused drugs between 2018 and 2019. Abuse was most prevalent in the Southwest as 4.3 million people were engaged.
Cannabis, the most abused substance, recorded about 10.6 million abusers in 2018; opioids 4.6 million, cough syrups 2.4 million, and cocaine 92,000. Also, tranquilisers and sedatives, prescription, stimulants, inhalers and amphetamines were commonly abused in 2018.
A BusinessDay investigation last year revealed that even though government clamped down on anaesthesia, meaning people without doctor’s prescription cannot access these drugs over the counter, abusers fed by a thriving cartel of under-dealers still had access.
Chijioke, a member of Lagos State Association of Medicine Dealers, who gave only his first name for avoidance retribution, says the sale is run in a coded manner between recognised dealers and retailers to save their cover.
According to Jonah Achema, NDLEA’s principal staff officer on public affairs, the abuse grows difficult to contain as rise in population sets the tone for a corresponding rise in other components of social behaviour, such as in deviance and criminal activities.
“We are aware that all manner of concoction is going on and we have embarked on massive awareness campaign targeted at all categories of people including students, out-of-school and in worship places,” he told BusinessDay.
Regrettably, Nigeria has a shortfall in the capacity to rescue its drowning youths. In Lagos, for instance, the Drug Addiction Unit of the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital, Yaba, can only treat 400 core cases of in-patients and at least 20,800 out-patients annually, according to Olajumoke Koyejo, a consultant addiction psychiatrist at the hospital.
Half of these patients suffer drug-related problems and 90 percent of them are youths. This means that the hospital can only manage 0.5 percent of the Southwest need to address psychiatric disorders.
The renewed focus, Ugwu says, is to intensify counselling, sensitisation, enlightenment campaigns, and offering of coping mechanisms to those struggling to get out of addiction.
