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Senate to investigate the increase of drug abuse in the North

The Senate has assigned its Joint Committee on Drugs and Narcotics to investigate the rising spate of drug abuse in the North. The Committee was charged on Tuesday, to Report back to the Senate on the needed legislative interventions to combat the trend.

The motion titled ‘The Need to Check the Rising Menace of Pharmaceutical Drug Abuse among Youths Especially in Northern Nigeria’ was raised by Senator Baba Garbai.

The lawmakers called on the Federal Government to partner relevant Stakeholders, Traditional Rulers, Non-Governmental Organisations and Pharmacists Council of Nigeria to create a framework in fighting this category of drug abuse.

“Embark on a vigorous sensitisation campaign on the dangers of drug abuse and steps on achieving a successful rehabilitation for people with the addiction”.

Garbai lamented the growing menace of drug abuse among Nigerian Northern women adding that even Secondary School Students use them regularly.

“The Senate regrets that while drug abuse, especially cannabis and cocaine, has been a long-time problem among Northern Male Youths, codeine cough syrup and other prescriptive drugs have become, as termed, ‘the new cancer ravaging women and girls in the North”.

He pointed out that NDLEA’s 2015 report shows that the North West had the highest number of drug related arrests. He also noted that:

“There is an incredible spike in drug-abuse in Borno State and the North-East ravaged by Boko Haram”.

The Senator added that research has shown that over three million bottles of codeine syrup is abused daily in Kano and Jigawa States.

“This problem is destroying even the mothers in homes, as they use same codeine and other drugs as an escape from their abusive relationships and invariably get hooked on them”.

“The Senate is worried that the increasing abuse of cough and prescriptive drugs among the youth and women across the 19 Northern States in the country has resulted in meaningless deaths, rendered them largely unproductive and has devastated many upper and middle-class families in Northern Nigeria”.

 

In a related development, Senator Oluremi Tinibu has said that women abuse drugs because they are not happy.

“Who is supposed to take care of the family? If she is not happy, if she is not being emotionally cared for, she would resort to whatever is available and I think Nigerian men have a lot to do in that respect”.

She also advocated for drug rehabilitation centres for people who are ready to stop the addiction.

“This is something that is not available so that some children might just stop and decide that ‘I’m tired of this life, how do I get help’. Help should be accessible to them”.

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