The Chairman and the Chief Executive Officer, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa has said that Nigeria has the highest Cannabis use rate in the world, saying 10.6 million Nigerians abused cannabis.
Marwa stated that Nigeria has a significant drug usage problem during the second edition of the Vanguard Mental Health Summit.
He said that until the 2018 UNODC-supported National Survey on Drug Use and Health was done and results were released, the seriousness of the crisis was unknown.
“Before then, the drug use profile of Nigeria was sketchy. The survey gave us facts for the first time and we got to know that Nigeria, as of 2018, had a 14.4 per cent drug use prevalence.
“That was an eye-opener. The statistics may not mean much at face value; only by comparison will the danger become glaring.
“The average global drug use prevalence was 5.5 per cent; at 14.4 per cent, Nigeria has almost three times the global prevalence.
“Without any doubt, the country has a serious substance abuse problem.
“Secondly, the survey gave us an idea about the pattern of abuse vis-a-vis prevalence and substance type in various regions of the country.
“The biggest revelation was that 10.6 million Nigerians abused cannabis. Again, this is a mere figure until you begin to figure it out in terms of the human impact. The ramification is that we have a cannabis-using population that is bigger than countries like Portugal and the United Arab Emirates.”
Marwa, who was represented at the event by Dr. Segun Oke, ACGN Zonal Commander, NDLEA, Lagos, claimed that in 22 months, the agency had detained 20, 000 criminals, sentenced 3,111 to prison terms, destroyed 900 hectares of cannabis farms, and shut down two illegal methamphetamine manufacturing facilities.
The new NDLEA Act, which will allow convicted traffickers to spend long years in jail without the option of a fee, will make next year tougher, he assured.
”We are also trying to present a counter-narrative to the wrong messages out there that brainwash young people to believe that illicit substances are harmless.”
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