Observers say drug problems can be reduced at less cost if we change course and adopt strategies that work. According to former President Goodluck Jonathan who signed the new NDCMP master plan, the guidelines will be a national road map to ensure that the harm caused by drug trafficking and use by Nigerians is reduced to the barest minimum. “The impact of illicit drug cultivation, trafficking and abuse on Nigerians is profound and manifests itself in many ways some of which may not be ordinarily visible because of the clandestine manner in which drugs find their way into society,” he said.

The formulation of the master plan was led by an inter-ministerial drug control committee in Nigeria with support from the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime (UNODC) under the framework of the European-Union funded project, ‘Response to Drugs and Related Organized Crime in Nigeria’. At the launch of the drug master plan, the chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Ahmadu Giade said “drugs do not make heroes but drug addicts. Drug trafficking does not make people successful rather it makes them prisoners.” The director-general of NDLEA, Mrs Roli Bode George said the beauty of the plan was that its formulation and implementation was based on the principle of collective participation. She listed some objectives of the plan to include, prioritizing issues identified through inclusive and participatory consultation, addressing disparity between law enforcement and drug demand reduction. 

Others are to provide strategic direction and capacity, enhance operational coordination and implementation as well as promote systematic policy oversight and evaluation. Beyond the master plan, there are numerous issues that should be urgently addressed. For example, Nigeria lacks reliable and comprehensive data on the prevalence of drug use, substance-use and the number of people with drug disorder. There are also insufficient sensitization and drug prevention programmes and those that exist are constrained by low political and financial support. Again, the issue of notorious illicit joints in the country that seems not to catch the attention of drug enforcement officers must be checked. Some of these open joints have rendered young men and women useless to themselves and a threat to the peace of their environment as they engage in all sorts of nefarious activities.

Despite evidence that HIV is growing in Nigeria, the link between HIV/AIDS and drug use has not received adequate attention. In a recent report on the Global Tobacco Epidemic 2015, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said too few governments levy appropriate levels of tax on cigarettes and other tobacco products. “These countries therefore miss out on a proven, low-cost measure to curb demand for tobacco; save lives and generate funds for stronger health services,” it said. The report focuses on raising taxes on tobacco. Although 33 countries impose taxes that represent more than 75 percent of the retail price of a packet of cigarette, many countries have extremely low tax rates. Some have no special tax on tobacco products at all.

“Raising taxes on tobacco products is one of the most effective and cost-effective ways to reduce consumption of products that kill, while also generating substantial revenue,” says Dr Margaret Chan, WHO director-general. “I encourage all governments to look at the evidence, not the industry’s arguments, and adopt one of the best win-win policy options available for health,” he advises. The main findings of the report, funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, include the fact that raising taxes is the least implemented MPOWER measure in terms of population coverage, and the one that has seen the least improvement in terms of government action since 2008. However, by 2014, 11 countries had raised taxes so that they represent more than 75 percent of the retail price of a packet of cigarette, joining the 22 countries that had similar high taxes in place in 2008.

The director of WHO’s Department for the Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs), Dr Douglas Bettcher said higher tobacco taxes and prices are proven methods to reduce consumption and promote quitting the use of tobacco products. “Evidence from countries such as China and France shows that higher tobacco product prices linked to increased taxes lead to declines in smoking prevalence and tobacco-related harm, such as lung cancer deaths,” said Bettcher. The executive director of Citizens Advocacy for Social and Economic Right (CESER), Frank Tietie, said Nigeria’s drug control strategy had been approached primarily as a law enforcement issue.

He said: “The police have done their jobs with record arrests, drug seizures and record incarceration of drug offenders yet drug problems continue to worsen. Expensive eradication and interdiction campaigns abroad have brought few results and many costs. Government’s efforts on drug control continue to go to incarceration, and law enforcement programs while treatment, prevention, research and education receives less attention.” He stressed the need for government to accept that the law enforcement paradigm would not work completely and shift to treating drug abuse as a health problem with social and economic implications. “The solutions are in public health approaches which focus on addicts and abusers – not all users – as well as social services to reduce many of the root causes of abuse, economic strategies to develop alternative markets and also control drug markets. The federal drug budget should recognize this by shifting resources to prevention, treatment and education,” he added.

A civil servant in Abuja, George Ejeh, said the most effective way to prevent adolescent drug abuse would be to invest in the youth and keep them interested and involved in life. He said, “Government should increase funding for after school programs, mentor programs, skills building and job training programs.” Experts say HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis-C and other blood borne diseases are rapidly spread through the sharing of contaminated syringes. Needle exchange and syringe deregulation have been shown to be effective ways to reduce the spread of diseases without increasing drug abuse. Also these services often lead to reductions in drug abuse by getting hard-core users into treatment.

The Federal Government should work with states as some state-initiated reforms have included treatment instead of prison, medical use of marijuana, and rehabilitation. The states are laboratories for new approaches that should be tried and if effective duplicated in other parts of the country. United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, insists “unless we reduce demand for illicit drugs, we can never fully tackle cultivation, production or trafficking. Governments have a responsibility to counteract both drug trafficking and drug abuse, but communities can also make a major contribution. Families, schools, civil society and religious organizations can do their part to rid their communities of drugs. Businesses can help provide legitimate livelihoods. The media can raise awareness about the dangers of narcotics.”

Source: Leadership Online