The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has announced that Kano State has the highest rate of drug abuse in the country.
Basing their statistics on the number of seizures, arrests of addicts and convictions of arrested dealers, NDLEA says “all hands must be on deck to save our upcoming generation from ruin.”
Punch reports:
Drug abuse in northern Nigeria’s largest city has been on the rise in recent years, with anti-narcotics officials and experts warning of serious social consequences if the problem is not tackled.
Kano has the country’s highest drug abuse rate based on the number of seizures, arrests of addicts and convictions of arrested dealers, according to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.
“It is a painful fact that Kano tops the drug abuse chart in Nigeria, a trend that all hands must be on deck to change if we are to save our upcoming generation from ruin,” the Kano commander for the NDLEA, Garba Ahmadu, told AFP.
“The use of hard drugs, especially among the youth, has become a real social menace and cuts across all social strata, with children from both rich and poor backgrounds deeply into it.”
On December 6 the NDLEA destroyed more than 10 metric tonnes of drugs, including cannabis, cocaine and methamphetamine, with an estimated street value of some $1.4 million (1.02 million euros).
The Hisbah, Kano’s so-called “morality police” which enforces Islamic law, separately impounded 100,000 cartons of glue during a raid on a city warehouse.
More unconventional drugs are also being used, not just codeine-laced cough syrup which has become popular among married women, but solvents and powerful horse stimulants.