…As NDLEA tightens the noose on traffickers, abusers
The availability of dangerous drugs at every street corner in Nigeria may have increased the chances of criminal activities in the country.
There are different substances that are being abused in the country nowadays, including alcoholic drinks sold at bus stops and motor parks across Nigeria.
Under the influence of such substances, the users commit heinous crimes. But, beyond the crimes are the lives of able-bodied young Nigerians wasting away under the influence of drugs.
For this, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) must increase its monitoring and stiff punishment for traffickers, dealers and abusers.
Beyond the ‘stick’ approach in punishing drug abusers, there is a psychosocial need towards managing and addressing the alarming rate of abuse among the youth.
Read also: Drug abuse threatens Nigeria’s future, Marwa warns youths
It is also more alarming considering that many of the drugs being abused by the youth are products and over-the-counter (OTC) medicines.
These are drugs sold without prescriptions for minor ailments like cough, headaches, colds, allergies, or indigestion available in pharmacies, grocery stores, and open markets.
It is now commonplace to see young people mix different items together all in the name of getting ‘high’, which have sent many to early grave, with some going berserk.
You easily hear young people talk about ‘home mix’; ‘Elle’ among others. These are mostly beverage products being mixed with OTC medicines and alcoholic/energy drinks.
This dangerous trend is increasingly common at parties and gatherings of young people where concoctions like ‘Elle’ a drink made similar like the popular ‘Sobo’ drink but with a different taste.
Medical experts have continued to warn that repeated consumption of these mixtures can lead to addiction, and multiple organ damage.
“Mixing substances to get high is like watching the body’s chemistry spiral out of control,” said Babatunde Yekeen, a medical laboratory scientist.
Recently, the Customs, NDLEA intercepted a 347.5kg of Canadian loud, a potent strain of cannabis, concealed within an imported Toyota Sienna at the Apapa Port.
According to a statement issued by the Customs Public Relations Officer of the Apapa Port Command, Isah Sulaiman, the illicit substance was discovered during a joint inspection of a single import consignment containing four vehicles.
This seized consignment corroborated what Femi Babafemi, director of media and advocacy of the NDLEA, said at a function earlier in January.
“Where there is heinous crime, there is most certainly drugs,” Babafemi was quoted to have said while addressing a group of Muslim clerics in Abuja.
Intersection between substance abuse and crime
Mahmud Isa Yola, in a recent article titled, ‘Another sorrow from Kano’ he linked drug/substance abuse to crime.
Yola, who wrote from the NDLEA National Headquarters in Abuja, said that Nigeria would continue to weep until it confronts the drug scourge with the same intensity with which it confronts bandits and banditry.
“We remember September 2021 when operatives at the Apapa Port seized 451,807 tablets of Captagon weighing 74.119kg.
“This was not for street peddlers. Captagon is known globally as the ‘Jihadist Drug’, the very pill used by ISIS fighters in Syria to stay awake for days and kill without remorse,” he stated.
According to Yola, these pills were destined for the insurgents in the North East, which was intended to fuel the exact kind of madness that occurred in Kano State recently, where a woman and her six children were brutally murdered.
“We remember the millions of Tramadol pills intercepted from syndicates supplying bandit camps. These are the logistical supplies of terror,” Yola added.
According to him, the slaughter in Kano is a sorrow too deep for words. “But as we mourn Fatima and her six beautiful children, we must realise that we are not just fighting criminals; we are fighting the substances that turn men into beasts.”
Moses Lawal, a Lagos-based public commentator told BusinessDaySunday that hard drug abuse and addiction is currently at a pandemic proportion in Nigeria.
He however, added that what is not yet fully appreciated is the intimate connection between the pandemic and the rising cases of violent crimes across Nigeria.
“Fact is that those hard drugs lessen inhibitions while simultaneously increasing risk appetite, propensity to commit crimes, and the energy to execute the crimes.
“These assertions can easily be verified by the recovery of substantial amounts of hard drugs from criminal hideouts, including those of bandits and terrorists,” Lawal said.
Polysubstance abuse
These home-mixtures known as Polysubstance abuse is not just a personal risk—it is a public health concern.
However, understanding these dangers highlights how closely the body’s systems are interlinked, and how a single reckless act can trigger cascading health consequences.
Ganiyat Yekeen, chairman, Young Medical Laboratory Scientists Forum (Oyo State Branch), said that the liver was often the first organ to bear the brunt of substance abuse.
“Normally responsible for detoxifying drugs and other harmful substances, an overwhelmed liver starts producing toxic by-products, which can result in liver injury or even liver failure,” she said.
According to him, laboratory tests are crucial in detecting damages caused by Polysubstance abuse, which altered liver enzymes such as ALT, AST, and GGT, indicating drug-induced stress or bile flow obstruction.
“The kidneys also struggle under the load of excessive toxins, risking acute or chronic kidney injury,” Yekeen said.
According to her, the blood chemistry becomes dangerously imbalanced, with electrolyte disturbances, acid–base shifts, and hypoglycemia, all of which can precipitate seizures, coma, or other life-threatening complications.
Read also: Experts raise alarm on rising drug abuse among Nigerian children
Societal pain
While the youth are wasting away under the influence of substance abuse and drug addiction, the society is bleeding in pains on the account of the number of people involved and the economic strain it brings on their families.
According to Lawal, there are two sad facts – trading in hard drugs is obscenely profitable and the lure to experience the psychotropic trance hard drugs induce (commonly called “high/highness”) is spreading down to primary school pupils.
“The aphrodisiac effects is also a strong factor driving the popularity of these drugs in this rapidly licentious generation,” he said.
According to him, Nigeria is fast losing a generation of the most productive demography to hard drug abuse pandemic, while the society pays for it in blood and lives.
“If this trend is not reversed soon, I pray we don’t have to build as many psychiatric homes and prisons as the number of public schools we have,” he said.
Lawal also urged the government to intensify the campaign and war against hard drugs, nust as he called on parents to play a much bigger role in assisting the government.
“On the part of the government, in addition to what has always been done, there should be a spotlight on the celebrities, artists, and music that openly glamorise drugs.
“Homes should be vigilant and monitor the content consumed by the kids on television and phones, while simultaneously observing for tell-tale signs of drug abuse/addiction,” Lawal said.
