It won’t be wrong if at the extent our youths are bent on self destruction, we should call for urgent help. Many of our youths are now under the influence.
They indulge in the expensive habit of drug taking. When people have been converted into drug users, they are likely to forsake everything just to have their dosage.
Aggro, they call it!
So many things lead to the expensive habit. Some might become addicted just because they want to be among the, ‘happening guys’.
Others might want to be because their ‘profession’ is crime. For instance, armed robbers, secret cultists and kidnappers.
Others might want to rely on drugs because they have to be awake. A ready example are students, especially during examinations.
Some develop the habit out of boredom. The list goes on and on.
The saddening thing is that, for the addict, even the most ordinary of things could be converted into drug.
There are some of them who make use of the fume from the soak away. There’s normally an opening for air to come out of the soak away. They inhale the fume and it makes them feel high.
There are some who keep looking for lizards. Actually, they are in the habit of collecting the faeces of lizards. When they’ve collected enough, they dry it. They then grind it into a powdery form. After that they wrap it like cigar and smoke away.
Of course, we all know marijuana. Interestingly, it’s now being embraced by the Western world for its curative functions. But it’s still addictive.
Most drugs are addictive. Even water and food are.
The cough drugs, codeine, tramadol and so on are very dangerous, if they are not taken under the guidance of medical practitioners. That means they have to be prescribed.
In our country, one can just walk into a pharmaceutical store and buy a prescription drug off the counter. The ubiquitous chemist, malam and sisi nurse that dot everywhere in our space are the guiltiest of this.
In Nigeria, it’s like everyone is a pharmacist. Once anyone is indisposed, we get a lot of solicited and unsolicited prescriptions. Some will even ‘help’ the sick person by giving them some drugs which some quack had prescribed for them when they had a similar illness.
And all these Sisi alagbo and Iya Ita who peddle drugs along our streets and in our garages are not helping us. Rather, they’re quickening our transition to the other world.
In the eighties, when I first became aware of the influx of illicit drugs, it used to be sold in secret. But now, it’s sold in the most obvious of places.
Our youth, for whatever reasons, are the most susceptible. They need to be enlightened about the consequences of drug addiction.
It’s said that if people are employed, they will hardly have the time to waste on inanities. If there can be increased employment opportunities, I think most of our youth may not have the time for drugs.
The drug business is a very large and lucrative one. So it will take the government, the private sector and individuals to network and see that we are, to a large extent, drug free.
I’m aware there are organisations in charge of drug control in the country, now is the time to show the effectiveness of their organisations.
Let’s make sure our youth are no longer ‘science students’.
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