Press "Enter" to skip to content

Drug Abuse and Mental health in Nigeria: What the Senate is doing differently

The media office of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, has revealed that the Senate has developed two draft bills for legislation geared towards tackling the issue of drug abuse and mental health care in Nigeria and this time, they plan to do things differently.

According to the statement, the two bills are National Drug Control Bill and National Mental Health Bill.

The National Drug Control Bill seeks to clarify the mandate and strengthen the capacity of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration Control (NAFDAC) and other relevant law enforcement and regulatory bodies to eradicate the illicit production, and trafficking of controlled substances.

It also seeks to establish a central mechanism to facilitate collaboration among law enforcement, regulatory and public health authorities in line with the National Drug Control Policy. The Bill further focuses on proactive law enforcement and regulatory measures towards the eradication of the illicit importation, production, and trafficking of controlled substances and also criminalizes the diversion, distribution or otherwise dispensing of controlled substances without a prescription or license.

While some of these have been originally enshrined in the Act on which the NDLEA and NAFDAC were established, this new Bill by the Senate seeks to further empower them with the apparatus and resources needed to effectively execute their responsibilities.

The National Mental Health Bill on its part is drafted to also account for the rehabilitation of substance abuse victims and the provision of the necessary tools and personnel needed for this rehabilitation.

On mental health bill, the statement noted that in recognition of the fact that psychosocial issues are the key drivers for the abuse of psychoactive substance; the Bill was crafted to ensure that standard facilities are available in every State to provide mental health and substance abuse services.

The proposed bill guarantees the protection of the rights of people with mental illness and stipulates that mental health practitioners and facilities no longer engage in practices that are harmful to people with mental health and substance use disorders.

Also, in recognizing of the low number of mental health practitioners in the country with the ratio of practitioners at one psychiatrist to 1.6 million people, the draft bill makes provision for quality mental health and substance abuse services available for women and adolescents, who are an underserved segment of the population.

Basically, this time, the Senate is considering a bill that accounts for proactive measures and also accounts for a solution in cases where the proactive measures are not efficiently executed.

Understanding the importance of Mental Health and Substance Abuse centres

In a report for World Health Day, the World Health Organization revealed that often times, when the issue of Mental Health is brought up in Nigeria, attention is immediately shifted to full-blown mad people walking the streets, naked and laden with trash. But this category is just a small fraction of the spectrum of mental disorder even though it could be referred to as the extreme case of the health condition. Other forms of mental disorders are depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, drug addiction, bipolar disorder, eating disorder, among others.

Several indications show that over 60 million Nigerians have one form of mental disorder or the other and only about 20 percent of persons in such category actually display the obvious forms of it (i.e. full blow madness) and this has largely clouded the reality of mental disorders in the country.

Specifically, the World Health Organisation (WHO) in its 2017 World Health Day message stated that 7,079,815 Nigerians suffer from one of the most ignored and misunderstood form of mental disorder – depression. This represents 3.9 percent of the entire population; making Nigeria, according to the current prevalence rate, the most depressed country in Africa.

To put this figure in perspective, it is like saying everyone in two averagely populated States of Nigeria suffers depression.

This new move to establish mental health centres across States in the country draws it importance from the plan that these centres would also be responsible for the sensitization people within their states of operation on the issue of mental illness and drug abuse, while also providing rehabilitation for people who are already victims.

Facebook Comments
ETN24 - Explaining the News is about putting News in the correct context to promote understanding and education. We believe News should educate, not agitate. Our dedication is to fighting Fake and Sensational News, as well as to keep an eye on the media to ensure our peace and sanity are not sold for traffic.
+ posts