NDLEA Cries Out That The Rate At Which Married Women Are Getting Hooked On Drugs Is Alarming

The rate at which married women are getting hooked on substance abuse has become very worrisome and alarming. Indeed, the Sokoto State Command of the National Drugs Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) is crying out loud. Allegedly based on some phantom claims that it would enhance their sexual appetite, these women take cough syrups that contain codeine which, unknown to them, is harmful to their health.

The Sokoto state Command of the NDLEA  made this observation and public alert recently and said it should be noted that it is not a problem restricted to the state.

This is a national social problem that has to be addressed as heroin and amphetamine-type stimulants and over-the-counter drugs are being increasingly abused across the country today.

Not too long ago, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC) called for the strengthening of legislations and an aggressive public education in the war against illicit drugs in Nigeria. This followed a report that about 1.5 million cocaine users are in West and Central Africa while cannabis has maintained its criminal place as the most widely cultivated, trafficked and abused substance within the sub-region.

Even so, there are some observable trends. Nigeria is one of the largest growers of cannabis. Hectares of cannabis plantations have been discovered in Edo and some areas in the South West, particularly Osun State where NDLEA reportedly destroyed a forest reserve of the weed in 2009. And because the weed is grown locally, it is easily available, cheap and therefore the most abused of the illegal drugs in the country. That perhaps explains why about eight per cent of the population reportedly abuses the substance that, in the past, used to be smoked in dark street corners and hide-outs.

Today, many young men and women openly wrap the substance, also called “pot,” and puff away, anywhere – at car wash spots, in public parks, on the streets, to get “stoned” and sometimes with even law enforcement agents looking away. Cocaine, heroin and amphetamines and ecstacy, are also available at the asking and many are increasingly dependent and hooked. 

Mr. Femi Ajayi, the former Director- General of NDLEA laments on the pervasiveness of these mind-blowing drugs, some with evidence of increasing the risk of psychotic illness: “We tend to pretend that we are only a transit country, not drug-using country. But that is not true. You have so much cannabis everywhere. Same goes for heroine and others, so the problem is here."

Now that so many married women are getting involved in the habit of substance abuse, the authorities have to take bolder steps to fight the scourge that is already creating social problems in many homes across the country. While statistics may be hard to come by, it stands to reason that there is a correlation between the abuse of drugs and most of the crimes that are now prevalent in the country today and more heartbreaking is the rate at which women are now doing it.

-Edited from This Day

Codeine enhances how one has sex?WTF!