WAHO says Nigeria, other West African countries battling with illicit drug abuse 

WAHO says Nigeria, other West African countries battling with illicit drug abuse 

The West Africa Health Organisation has decried the problem of illicit drug abuse in West Africa countries, including Nigeria, saying that many countries in the region  are still seriously battling with the problem.

The organisation raised an alarm that in West Africa and elsewhere on the Africa continent “there is now a codeine epidemic amongst our youths, the tramadol crowd, even as many engage in a voyage of discovery with various agents – diazepam, chlorpromazine, and different inhalants.”

Speaking on Tuesday at the launch of the 2018-2019 West African Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (WENDU) Report of Statistics and Trends on Illicit Drug Supply and Drug Use, the Director General of West Africa Health Organisation (WAHO), Prof Stanley Okolo said cannabis remain the most available drug in the region as it is easy to grow in the climate, and cheaper than cocaine and heroin. 

He said the reported prevalence rates of the drug which stands at 5.2 % for West Africa and 13.5 % for Central Africa are very high indeed.

Okolo said: “The public health and socio-economic consequences of this worrying scenario of illicit drug use in our region are now evident in our societies. Drug dependence, mental health issues, suicide rates, and gratuitous violence often associated with security incidents are now widespread in our region. This drug habit feeds off the high rates of trafficking of illicit drugs and trafficking of fake and falsified medicinal products estimated at 20-40% in our region, whilst at the same time creating a demand base for such trafficking, resulting in a vicious cycle that needs to be broken.

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He said the need for action was more urgent now than ever as the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the fore the severe inadequacies in our health systems with a misalignment of disease burden, poverty, and population boom on one side and healthcare expenditure and investment on the other, noting that traffickers of illicit and falsified products know the market well and will always target medications in high demand. 

He revealed that: “Their thriving business will often target antibiotics, anti-malarial drugs, pain killers, anti-hypertensives, anti-diabetic agents, and even life-saving cardiac medicines, leading to serious injury and deaths.”

Meanwhile, Chairman/ Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (Retd) who was the launcher of the report, said that the use of credible data is essential in the fight against drug abuse, while  warning that the number of people using illicit drugs in Africa might rise by 40 percent in year 2030.

Marwa, speaking during the teleconference launch, expressed Nigeria’s preparedness to continue to provide credible data to sustain the fight against drug abuse.

He said: “The misuse of psychoactive substances such as alcohol, tobacco, cannabis, heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine as well as prescription medications exert tremendous toll on the individual, families, communities and societies.  Substance use has impacted negatively on public health, caused injuries, loss of income and productivity, family and community dysfunction and even death.

“Drug use around the world has been on the increase in terms of the overall number as well as the proportion of the world’s population that use drugs. The continuous increase in the types of new psychoactive substances being discovered globally is also worrisome.  According to the World Drug Report 2020, in 2018, an estimated 269 million people representing 5.3 percent of the global population were reported to have used drugs as against 210 million in 2009 representing 4.8 percent.”

He added that: “The West African Sub Region is in the lime light at the international scene because of its role as a transit hub for cocaine from South America and heroin from East Asia to Europe as well as its heightened tramadol, codeine and cannabis use.

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“Furthermore, going by the projection of demographic factors, by 2030, the number of people using drugs is expected to rise by 11 percent around the world and as much as 40 percent in Africa alone. The role of credible data in addressing the world drug problem cannot be over emphasized.  West African States just like the rest of Africa have been grappling   with the problem of dearth of credible data on the trend of drug use in the sub region.”

While assuring that Nigeria will continue to play its role to support the sustainability of WENDU by continuously providing credible data through its National Sentinel Network; the Nigerian Epidemiological Network on Drug Use, NENDU, Marwa urged “all ECOWAS Member States to employ this well-articulated report for informed policy formulation, programming and monitoring of our interventions in the ECOWAS Sub Region for better outcome in our drug control efforts.”

The WENDU Report (2018-2019) provides information on the drug situation in ECOWAS Member States and Mauritania. Overall, Canna- bis, Pharmaceutical opioid, Cocaine, Khat, Heroin, Methamphetamine and key precursor chemicals for methamphetamine such as ephedrine, were the main drugs seized in West Africa in the index period. Cannabis continues to account for the largest quantity of drugs seized in the region. 

A total of 1,082 tonnes of cannabis were seized in the index period. Phar- maceutical opioid seizures were recorded in Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo. In addition to the 129 tonnes of pharmaceutical opioids seized during this period, over 19 million tablets of tramadol with various pharmaceutical strengths and dosage forms were reportedly seized in the region.

WAHO says Nigeria, other West African countries battling with illicit drug abuse