Senate urges Nigerian govt to declare state of emergency on drug abuse

The Senate on Tuesday urged the Federal Government to declare a state of emergency on illicit drugs and drug abuse in the country.

This followed the adoption of a motion titled: “Urgent need to address the menace of drug abuse in Nigeria,” presented at the plenary by Senator Babangida Hussain.

Hussain, who led the debate on the motion, lamented that Nigeria was faced with an unprecedented level of drug abuse.

He said Nigeria had transformed from a mere drug transit in the 1990s into a country filled with drug addiction and drug traffickers all over its land space.

The lawmaker said: “A population of between 30 million and 35 million spends approximately $15,000 and $30,000 annually on psychotropic drugs and alcoholic beverages in Nigeria.

READ ALSO: Tinubu charges NDLEA, others to step up fight against drug abuse in Africa

“A statistics by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime and the European Union on drug use in Nigeria, stated that about 14.3 million Nigerians between the ages 15 and 64, were drug users.

“The report stated that 10.6 million addicts were cannabis users, 4.6 addicts used pharmaceutical opioids and 238,0000 abusers used amphetamines.

“The prevalence of drug abuse per geopolitical zone in 2017 showed that the North-West accounted for 12 percent, North-East 13.6 percent North-Central 10 percent, South-West 22.4 percent South-South 16.6 percent and the South-East 13.8 percent.”

He described the ongoing campaign against drug abuse by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) as ineffective.

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