- One in seven Nigerians (aged 15-64 years) had used a drug in 2022 – UNODC report
- Marijuana gives me strength and motivation to carry out hard work – Addict
- It’s dismissal or expulsion if you’re caught after the disciplinary committee confirms you guilty – Deputy Dean, School of Post- graduate Studies, Baze University, Abuja
By Juliet Jacob
In the thinking of Yezed Mohammed, who says he is from Katsina State, he is living the life of his dreams. He told our correspondent on the street of Jerusalem, an urban slum around the high-brow Baze University in Abuja, where he lives free – without ambition or qualms – that life is good. He also said that he has been using and abusing drugs in the last six years.
Getting him to give this interview was not easy. Mohammed who said he does not have any side effect from abusing drugs was unsteady for most part. He was shaky and appeared like someone who needed sleep very badly. He constantly scratched his hands and body.
Health experts say his mannerisms are clear signs of an addict craving for more drugs. According to Dr. Emmanuel Edet of Garki Hospital Abuja, “these are signs that the situation with him is already very bad; he urgently needs medical attention” adding “not until you physically examine such a patient, it is not possible to say how far gone he is”
Mohammed says he started doing drugs for several reasons which does not include bad influence from friends or peer pressure. Rather he attributes it to what he called “too much thinking and depression.”
He lists his favourite drugs as marijuana also called India hemp or weed, rohypnol known on the street as rochi and cigarettes.
Asked if he intends to stop anytime soon, he said he had no idea, “because it is not something you can decide to quit at once.” He agrees that whenever he takes drugs his physical appearance changes and says he takes the drugs with some proper medication which he says helps him to reduce the side effects. Dr. Edet dismissed his claims. “He is only fooling himself the way all addicts do.”
To fund his deadly habit Mohammed says, “I must figure out a way to get money either by borrowing, begging or even selling some of my stuffs to raise money.”
In the case of Sunday Bassey who says he is from Cross River State, he said he was on a coterie of drugs at the onset but retired to only marijuana “because of the side effects he was getting.”
Before retiring to only marijuana, he said he was taking, rohypnol, codine, tramadol, texolsine and papdine. He said, he is now so hooked on “marijuana he said only God can help me with that because obviously I can’t do it on my own.”
To fund his habit, he says he goes to work as an artisan at construction sites. “When I don’t have money to buy the drugs, I go as far as borrowing because I can’t do without it.” According to him, so he can do anything to satisfy that urge” claiming “marijuana gives me strength and motivation to carry out hard work.” Besides his claim on strength, the other identified motives include to drive pleasure, desire to relax/sleep, experiment/curiosity, to keep awake and to relieve stress.
Relief of anxiety, dealing with unemployment and fighting frustration were additional push factors.
According to Jatau and others, drugs and other substances abuse is more prevalent among younger population, males, undergraduate and secondary school students, and commercial vehicle drivers.
Report from their research, “have shown that the burden of drug abuse is growing despite several drug laws, policies and strategic plans to prevent it” adding “the major sources for the drugs were pharmacies/patent medicine stores, drug hawkers, friends who are abusers and drug pushers.
No wonder Ms. Timilade Asebiomo, a medical student at Baze University, Abuja, says “the major reason for drug abusers is peer pressure and the need to find comfort due to depression from school stress” she also identified “family pressure and a lot of people trying to find their identity” as other reasons. She says drug abuse is a common trend among students of the University and beyond.
She says one of the ways to deal with situation is to believe in God. “The major way to avoid it is through the help of God. In her words: “I am a religious person so I feel like God should always come first, whatever it is you’re going through is temporary and the only permanent solution to any problem is God, the religion doesn’t matter Christian or Muslim.”
She also says “the other way of avoiding it (taking drugs), is to be busy with something, then avoiding bad friends because of the possibility of influence.” Ms. Asebiomo commended the authorities at the Baze University for “creating awareness through adverts and also placing sanctions on drug abusers” but wants the school management to do more to educate the students on the long term effects of drug use and abuse.
Some of the popular drugs she has heard of in the school are marijuana (weed), Molly and alcohol.
Speaking on the rate of drug use and abuse amongst young people in the country, particularly amongst students of the Baze University, the Deputy Dean of the School of Post graduate Studies of the university, Professor Abiodun Adeniyi said. “I think it’s very prevalent and very unfortunately so.”
According to him, the situation depicts “the high level of moral decadence and moral deprivation in the society today” admitting the menace has both “short and long term disadvantages.”
“Short term in terms of disorienting the addicts and preventing them from being immediately productive and on the long term you have also disorientation rubbing on the whole community and preventing efficiency you know” he said adding “diminishing the capacity of the individual to contribute meaningfully to the social system.”
According to Professor Adiniyi, age and adventure are some of the factors leading some students of the university into the menace.
“It’s a youthful age and it’s the age of exuberance, age of enthusiasm, the age of discovery and the age of aspiration and because of that, students tend to be tempted to experiment and get to into adventures but in doing that some of them miss the mark,” he said.
The Deputy Dean also admitted that drug use and abuse can affect students’ performance in academics. “It is capable because it gives them false sense of fulfillment, false sense of satisfaction and creates several levels of delusions and elusion which is distanced from reality and for you to succeed in your academics, you need to face reality and you need to initialize what you’ve been taught into analysis.”
He also praised the institution’s zero tolerance for drug abuse on campus. According to him, it is one of the things that is clearly stated in the student’s regulations handbook. “If you’re caught it’s dismissal or expulsion after the disciplinary committee evaluates your case and confirms you guilty.”
In addition, he said “if the security agency of the university, suspects anyone using drugs, they’re subjected to a test and if the test turns out positive, appropriate measure will be taken which includes expulsion or suspension”
In Nigeria, the burden of drug abuse is on the rise and becoming a public health concern. Nigeria, which is the most populous country in Africa, has developed a reputation as a centre for drug trafficking and usage mostly among the youth population.
According to the 2018 UNODC report “Drug Use in Nigeria,” the first large-scale, nationwide national drug use survey in Nigeria, one in seven persons (aged 15-64 years) had used a drug in the past year. Also, one in five individuals who had used drug in the past year is suffering from drug-related disorders. Drug abuse has been a cause of many criminal offences such as theft, burglary, sex work, and shoplifting.
According to Mathew Onoja of Pathfinder International, in an abstract on drug use among students of public and private secondary schools in Jos, North central Nigeria, “the prevalence of substance abuse was 22.1 percent and 15.3 percent among students of private and public secondary schools, respectively”
He said “even though one or both parents of over half of the students sampled for both schools (52% for the private school and 52.3% for the public school) indulge in one form or the other of substance intake, there is no statistical correlation between parental use of substances and influence on respondents to abuse substances”
