National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA)
Mr Abdullahi Abdul, the Enugu State Commander, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), has called for capacity building workshops on drug management for Drug Control Committee (DCC) members across the states of the federation.
Abdul made the call during a two-day seminar on drug management for the committee members in the state.
The event was organised by the state Ministry of Health in partnership with NDLEA and Bensther Development Foundation.
He said: “It is important for each state of the federation to have a capacity building seminar for the DCC members.
”As a member, the seminar is useful and important in order to reduce and eliminate the menace of drug addiction in our localities.”
Mr Eyeuche Ome, the Principal Staff Officer, Drug Demand Reduction Department of the agency, said that 370,000 people in Enugu were high risk drug users.
He said that all the states in Nigeria had drug addicts of different kinds, including the ones on injection, smoking and ingestion, among others.
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According to him, drug abuse and addiction lead to sexually transmitted diseases, HIV transmission, Hapitaitis, low productivity and others dangerous to health.
Ome further said that inappropriate use of drugs constituted danger to physical, social, economic and legal harm.
He said that drug addicts were faced with incarceration and death sentence upon conviction in some countries.
”In any country, where there is a high risk of drug misuse, there is always the problem of poverty and other atrocities,” he said.
He advised that the rights of drug adicts be respected and that they should not be stigmatised but helped to overcome the addiction.
Also, Mr Nonso Maduka, a pharmacist with the foundation, said that agents of socialisation must be incorporated in the struggle to reduce or eradicate drug abuse.
”Family, school, workplaces, communities and the health sector should be the major target for the prevention of drug abuse,” Maduka said.
He said that the seminar was in line with the global advocacy for better drug policies that prioritise public health and human rights.
”The campaign aims to promote drug policy reform and change of laws and policies, which impede access to harm reduction and intervention,” he said.
Mr Casmir Odo, a Director in the ministry, expressed worry over the menace of drug abuse in Nigeria and the world in general.
Odo said that National Drug Control Master Plan 2017 was intended to strengthen the use of drug, control its abuse as well as its supply and demand.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the seminar, which ended on Thursday, was designed to sensitise and mobilise communities in the war against drug abuse in Nigeria.
