Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig.-Gen Buba Marwa (rtd.), yesterday, raised the alarm that about 15 million Nigerians between the ages of 15 and 64 are involved in the intake of illicit drugs.
While expressing concern that the statistics were nearly three times the global average, Marwa, who described the figure as unacceptable, revealed that one in every seven Nigerians in the age bracket consumes drugs.
Marwa, who spoke during a courtesy visit with his entourage to Ondo State Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, at the Governor’s Office, Alagbaka, Akure, the state capital, lamented that the state was the highest producer of cannabis in Nigeria, due to what he described as favourable climate and soil conditions.
With the NDLEA boss presenting data on drug use prevalence, enforcement outcomes and cannabis production across the country, with particular emphasis on Ondo State, Marwa, who cited the 2018 United Nations drug use survey, maintained that drug use prevalence in Ondo State stands at 17 percent, translating to roughly 400,000 users.
Marwa, comparing the Ondo data with 33 percent in Lagos State with two million users and 24 percent in Oyo State, stressed: “The drug use has had devastating consequences on our families and our communities. It has also promoted criminality, as we know.
“The Boko Haram, the terrorists, the kidnappers. In fact, the kidnappers now, through intelligence, our intelligence sources have been shown to live among the cannabis-cultivating communities in the deep forests. And that makes sense to them. Why not establish a base where the drugs are readily available?” He noted that the NDLEA in Ondo State Command made 336 arrests, seizing 22,316 kilogrammes of illicit substances.
“They convicted 62 and seized and destroyed 207,000 kilogrammes worth of cannabis in the plantations and farms. We have a counselling and rehab centre here. We treated 243,” he added.
Meanwhile, the NDLEA Chairman disclosed that the agency had commissioned the Nigerian Academy of Science to conduct a scientific study on cannabis-extracted oil for medicinal purposes, stressing that any decision on controlled cultivation and export would be strictly evidence-based.
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