Poverty, system failure responsible for drug abuse — Emir Sanusi

The Emir of Kano, Muhammad Sanusi II, has attributed the increasing rate of drug abuse in the country to poverty and failure of system.

Sanusi spoke yesterday in Kano during the flag-off of the Youth Against Drug Abuse (YADA) Awareness Campaign organized by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).

While condemning the growing phenomenon of drugs abuse in the society, Sanusi said the process of de-industrialisation and increasing level of poverty birthed more unemployed youths who then resort to drugs abuse.

“In the last three or four decades, we have had the process of deindustrialization and an increasing level of poverty, resulting in a large number of unemployed youths, a very large number of out of school children and a lot of frustrated people” he said.

The Director-General of NAFDAC, Professor Mojisola Christiana Adeyeye, said plans were underway for a high powered discussion between Nigeria and South East Asia countries as measure of halting the shipment of illegal drugs into the country.

She expressed worry that Tramadol, with higher prescription strengths of 120, 225 and 500 mg and marked “For Exports Only”, were being shipped to Nigeria from China and India.

“These strengths are not allowed in these countries, but they don’t see any problem in exporting them to our country,” she said.

Adeyeye further disclosed that since May, 2018, when the agency returned to the ports and borders, they had seized over N200 billion worth of Tramadol and other unregistered drugs.