Sultan Raises the Alarm over Menace of Drug Abuse among Women

Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar, yesterday challenged medical professionals to take proactive measures to checkmate the menace of drug abuse among women in the country.

The monarch made this known when Yobe State Governor, Ibrahim Geidam, was bestowed with Honorary Membership Status of the Society of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of Nigeria (SOGON) at its 51st Annual General Meeting and Scientific Conference held in Sokoto.

He decried the rising cases of drug abuse among married women in the North, saying all hands must be on deck to tackle the problem.

According to him, as healthcare givers, there was need for medical professionals to take proactive measures in checkmating drug abuse by restricting patients' access to cough syrup.

"I am challenging members of SOGON and other medical professionals to use their good offices as healthcare givers to checkmate the menace of drug abuse by our women especially the married ones.

"How do we partner with your Association to checkmate this ugly trend? Can we ban the production of cough syrups or can we do without them? I think this is something you have to look into as you round up this conference.

"I think there is need for restriction in the procurement of these cough syrups by stopping people from going to chemist to buy them," the monarch opined.

He said a meeting of traditional leaders in the North would be convened soon to deliberate on ways to tackle the ugly trend.

"We are really worried about this issue of drug abuse among our women and children and as traditional leaders in the North, we have a lot to do by sensitising our people.

"We have a conference of Northern Traditional Rulers in the next 10 days and I will specifically present this issue of drug abuse to our religious and traditional leaders to see how we can checkmate this negative trend," he added.

Geidam, who was honoured with honorary membership status of SOGON, commended the society for the gesture.