Recently, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency launched the War Against Drug Abuse initiative to rally Nigerians to actively partake in the war against drug abuse, which it said was taking a frightening dimension in the country, and which experts have, at various fora, also warned had risen to emergency levels.
Worried by the development, President Muhammadu Buhari had, on the occasion of the United Nations International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking held recently, described the danger posed by illicit drugs as deadlier than insurgency, banditry and other threats bedeviling the country.
In addition, Researchers have said alcohol and other drugs are major factors in infection rates of Human Immuno-deficiency Virus /Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome , violent crimes, child abuse and neglect, and unemployment. They said drug abuse also result in gang formation, cultism, armed robbery and mental illness, among others. Studies also revealed that most of drug addicts started smoking from their adolescence. As they grow older, they seek new thrills and gradually go into hard drugs.
A dichotomy in the past year prevalence of drug use was, however, found between the North and South geopolitical zones. Highest past-year prevalence of drug use was found in the southern political zones: South East, South West, and South-South zones compared to the North .People who inject drugs constitute a sizeable proportion of high-risk drug users in Nigeria. One in five high-risk drug users injects drugs.
Past-year users of tranquilizers, heroin and methamphetamine were more likely to report chronic health conditions and poorer health status as compared with other drug users or the general population. Access to services to reduce the adverse consequences of drug use was also limited. Less than half of the high-risk drug users had received HIV testing and counselling while in treatment.
According to the Report, the percentage of Δ9-THC – the main psychoactive component in cannabis – has risen from around six per cent to more than 11 per cent in Europe between 2002-2019, and around four per cent to 16 per cent in the United States between 1995-2019, while the percentage of adolescents that perceived cannabis as harmful declined by 40 per cent in the United States and by 25 per cent in Europe.