Drug Abuse And Its Negative Impact on Our Society.

By Abdu Labaran Malumfashi.

The Chairman and Chief Executive (CE) of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brigadier-General  Muhammed Buba Marwa rtd, would no doubt want to see the end of all drug lords and traffickers wherever they might be in the world.

This much he inferred in Abuja on Wednesday 19th when he addressed the press to kick start the week long activities to celebrate the 2024 International Day Against Drugs And Illicit Trafficking. The occasion was organised in collaboration with other stakeholders such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), where he disclosed that the NDLEA had been waging a successful war against drug barons and traffickers by going after their assets as well.

According to the NDLEA boss, represented by Mr. Shadrach Haruna, the agency’s Secretary, the anti doping body has been successfully engaged in fighting drug barons and traffickers since 2021, during which it has arrested and prosecuted several barons, and sent two serial traffickers to jail for life. The assets of the arrested barons and traffickers were handed over to the federal government, he added.

But before the agency is congratulated wholeheartedly, let it to go after the many so called big people in the country, who have no known source of income but are very rich. Such people must be into big time illicit drug business or advance fee fraud (419). Not a few of them disguise as ‘responsible and respectable business’ people found in the society moving with ‘airs’ as so called socialites. This is tantamount to them having nothing to do but ‘spend money’, which sources are not ascertained. Some are into  ‘flimsy’ business but ‘rich’ beyond their so called business.

But drug pushing with no or little risk could only take place in Nigeria. In other societies such as Saudi Arabia, Colombia, China, Malaysia, Singapore, etc, instant death awaits anyone who was caught with banned drugs in those countries. In the countries where death sentence is abolished, such people get life imprisonment without wasting time.

The legal system in those countries works like a clock work, unlike on these shores where justice in most cases went to the one with the deepest pockets, what we call ‘the highest bidder’. Someti

At the height of his hard drug notoriety, the Colombian infamous drug lord, who manufactured, supplied and distributed cocaine across the world, notably the US , Pablo Escobar of the Medellin Cartel , was said to be one of the wealthiest criminal in history,  with an estimated net worth of 30 billions US dollars.

He was alleged to have burned $ 100 bills worth millions of dollars occasionally just to keep his young daughter warm from the severe cold during the winter. He owned many aircraft and locally rigged submarines for the secret distribution of the illegal drugs before he was eventually gunned down by a team of Colombian security operatives, who were hunting for him for ages.

The local traffickers do not care to whom they sell the drugs or who uses them as long as it is not their biological children. And they themselves hardly take the stuff, knowing its negative effect on the user. Besides, their motive is to make money (tons of it too).

But even without the ‘aid’ of the traffickers, some of the druggists (mostly youths) still take cocktail of locally made drugs from such lethal concoction of batteries, codeine, grime of gutter, dung of lizards and others too numerous to mention.

Other users also include, ‘Yan daba, whose ungodly activities are cause of worry for decent people in the society. Recently, they hacked to death the leader of the vigilantes group in Unguwar Ja’in, in Kano city. Then there are the street urchins, many of whom are almajirai. Users of illicit drugs also include terrorists such as Boko Haram and bandits, who murder people, abduct others for ransom and stole food items from wherever they launched their ferocious attacks. No one in their senses would ever do what these outlaws do to their victims. A mind not fuelled by illicit drugs would not be able to live in peace with its conscience.

Not least among the bad eggs who pose a threat to the society are the general petty and full-time criminals.

Both genders are involved in the unfortunate ‘business’ of taking banned or controlled substances. The fairer sex are more into ‘doing’ codeine. This development has caused NDLEA to urge dispensing pharmacies to sell medicines or drugs only based on proscription from a recognised hospital or medical establishment in the area.

Victims of the bad habit include parents (killed by their highly drugged children), oftentimes on purpose, as confessed by a drunk youth who gleefully told the police that he killed his father so that the old man could go to heaven even as he accepted to be condemned to hellfire in the hear after. 

The NDLEA should not listen to the calls for the legislation of weeds for medicinal purposes, because doing so would serve the evil purpose of the traffickers, who would find a way to abuse it. This being Nigeria, with the get-rich-quick mentality of its citizens, it is foolhardy to legalise what is called with the other names of  marijuana and hashish. Compliance would only be in the breach of the law legalising it.

Malam Malumfashi wrote from Katsina.