The link between drug trafficking and abuse by experts

Emeka Ibemere

Greed is mother of all crime; if not what would have made a football coach in a foreign country to try to do illicit drug trafficking.

But that was what 38-year-old Darlugar Ufondu Steven did that earned him arrest in Nigeria after flying home to smuggle drugs to South Africa.

 Officers of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) said they prevented the suspect from smuggling drugs to the Nelson Mandela’s country.

The arrest and drug seizure took place at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA), Ikeja Lagos during the outward screening of Arik Air passengers to South Africa.

The drug was concealed in a false compartment of the suspect’s luggage.

The NDLEA commander at the Lagos airport, Hamza Umar said, “A 38-year-old man, Dalugar Ufondu Steven was apprehended on his way to South Africa. He was found in possession of 1.535kg of substances that tested positive for methamphetamine”, Umar stated.

According to NDLEA’s investigation, the suspect was an assistant coach in an amateur football club in South Africa. He was alleged to have confessed that he committed that act out of economic pressure.

“I am married and have a child and I have lived in South Africa for about a decade. I have worked very hard to attain financial freedom but have nothing in return. This is my first time of smuggling drugs. I was under financial pressure to cope with peers. A friend introduced me to drug trafficking as a way of making quick money. They promised to pay me $6,000 to take the bag containing the drugs to South Africa”, he quipped.

Chairman/Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Ahmadu Giade called on members of the public to support drug control efforts.

 “We have made remarkable improvement in our counter-narcotic efforts. The Agency is prepared to detect hidden drugs and prosecute the drug barons. Members of the public should avoid drug trafficking and report suspected cases to the Agency,” Giade stated.

The suspect would soon be charged to court.

 Drug trafficking is increasing drug addiction and the act is taking its toll on Nigerian youths and the old alike. The addiction starts from abuse of illicit drugs supplied by traffickers just to be high.

 And if indeed it controls, it takes the consumer higher than he expected and could lead to deaths and mental challenges.

Experts have reported that narcotic drugs and psychoactive substances have been identified as a major cause of broken marriages, social vices, civil upheavals and other forms of criminalities.

Mr. Hamza Umar, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) Commander at the Murtala Muhammed Airport (MMIA) Lagos, harped on this in his presentation to the participants of Course 36; at the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) Kuru, Jos.

 Hamza said that narcotic drugs negatively affect industrial relations and millennium development goals. According to the NDLEA Commander in a paper entitled: The Role of NDLEA in Industrial Relations, Labour Productivity and National Development, drugs have more debilitating effects on mankind than most dreaded epidemics, such as Ebola and HIV/AIDS.

 “Apart from the genocide of the Second World War, no other phenomenon has had more debilitating consequences on mankind like the pandemic drug scourge. Drugs induce social vices, civil upheavals and other forms of criminalities,” Hamza posited.

He stated that while many workers are thrown into the unemployment market, several marriages have broken-up on account of drug use. He explained that this occurs either when spouses are incarcerated over drug related offences or when they are grappling with drug dependency.

Expectedly, most children lack proper parental upbringing thus exposing them to delinquencies.
Hamza argued that if drug cartels could capitalize on the high population, bustling commerce, vibrant air transportation and geographical location of Nigeria, in making it a transit point for category ‘A’ drugs like cocaine, heroin and other psychotropic substances; government should harness same factors in its counter-narcotics campaign.
A state of insecurity resulting from the activities of drug cartels could force skill workers to abandon their jobs and send students out of school. It also undermines ethical values and human capital development.

The drug Czar, enumerated sectors affected by the activities of drug cartels as investment, inflation, politics, agriculture, tourism as well as personal relationship.
But in his recommendation, Hamza called for increased funding for the Agency, establishment of Liaison Offices/Drug Attachés in all Nigerian Diplomatic Missions, regular review of drug control laws, training and re-training of NDLEA officers, provision of logistics, synergy among law enforcement agencies and elaborate anti-drug abuse enlightenment.
Statistics from the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), reported a good percent of Nigerians admitted to using illegal drugs and a good percent are problem drinkers.

“Family members and friends are affected, as well by the substance abuse issues of their loved ones. It's essential we educate ourselves about substance abuse. Substance abuse directly affects millions of people in our society each year”, Wilson Ighodalo, President, the drug salvation foundation, stated while speaking on substance and abuse in Nigeria. According to him, drug abuse affects age but more risky in the younger ones. “Substance abuse affects people of all ages, but young people in particular are at risk. The younger a person is when he starts to abuse a substance, the greater the likelihood he will get addicted”, he quipped.

“This is a special danger, because the structure of an adolescent's brain is not well-developed in the areas that control decision-making and judgment, leaving him more vulnerable to substance abuse. I am very concern with Lagos street kids and slumps kids”.

Ighodalo also disclosed that the addiction affects the brain chemistry and create problem of over dependent on the illicit drugs.

He said once the drug is ingested, many drugs alter brain chemistry in a way that makes it more likely for a person to become dependent or addicted. “These changes lead to greater tolerance of the drug, a greater need for the drug; because the ability to feel pleasure without it is inhibited. And a greater likelihood to abuse drugs when triggered by people, places and things associated with the drug”. Speaking further, the anti-drug campaigner said there are biological predispositions towards substance abuse. According to him, some people are more prone to drug abuse than others. A biological predisposition toward substance abuse, along with environment, was responsible for 50 percent of an individual's vulnerability to addiction.

“In other words, if parents are addicts, it is essential to create an environment that supports freedom from substance abuse if children are to have any chance at a substance-free lifestyle”. It’s understood that influence, especially among peer group, have a tremendous effect when it comes to a person's vulnerability to substance abuse, but that parents have even more. He disclosed that young once cite their parents as a greater influence than their friends in the decision of whether or not they would use drugs. “So, be careful what you do in presence of your kids”, Ighodalo warned.

“Alcohol is the most dangerous substance abused in Nigeria, you hear Road Safety Officers shouting don't drink and drive, some Nigerians see the campaign as joke (comedy), drunk -driving killed hundreds of people annually and causing injury to thousands more due to alcohol-related car crashes”.

The anti-drug crusader explained that alcohol abuse was especially insidious, because while it caused the most damage, it was also the most socially accepted of all substances in Nigeria.

“You hear some Nigerians will say; ‘make I drink & forget my problems’, let me tell you, after the drink must have cleared from your eyes, your problems will still be there waiting for you, in fact is now double”. On the treatment for substance abuse in the country, Ighodalo stated that treatment for substance abuse was not a one-size-fits-all proposition.

 According to him, many people benefited from 12-step programs, while others find help through spiritual-oriented programs. He said some people need in-patient treatment (rehab home), while others do just as well with a combination of medication and therapy. On the recorded success of drug abuse, he said like most health issues, substance abuse may not respond to the first attempt at treatment. “Even if the person is very well-motivated, it may take several attempts before he is able to effectively deal with the substance abuse issue”. Even on prescription drugs, he further said such drugs are increasingly being abused. According to him, the abusers prescription drugs are either ingest in greater quantities than they are meant to be taken, or used by someone other than the individual for whom they were prescribed. “Our research has shown this trend is very common in a particular region in Nigeria. Commonly abused prescription medications include pain pills, medication for attention deficit disorder, and muscle relaxers”.

On the effect on the elderly, Ighodalo said approximately a good percentage, persons aged 30 or older had used illicit drugs in the past and were "binge" alcohol users, including more than millions who were heavy alcohol users. He disclosed that there are certain times when older adults are more vulnerable to substance abuse,

Speaking on prevention, the advertisement guru quoted the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) reports, which claimed that prevention efforts that involved families, communities, schools and the media are effective in preventing substance abuse. He said: “When people perceive substance abuse as harmful, they reduce their drug-taking, so education is vital”.

Talking about drug abuse alone, he said there are so many factors that led to drug abuse. Parents at home contribute to drug abuse of their wards as they encourage their children into drug abuse.

“Why do I say so; when you are talking about drug abuse, it starts at home because the way you train your child; that is how he or she will grow with it? if you start telling your children on time about the dangers and other societal menace of drug abuse, alcohol and even stealing, there is no way that child would not imbibe good virtues. Again, do you know some parents smoke before their kids and some even go as far as sending their wards to go and buy cigarettes or India hemps for them”?  He queried.

“And what do you think such a child will grow to become in future? Other factors are pressure group. Here, parents don’t monitor who their child goes out with and when they are in the midst of the bad ones, the pressure to resist what their age mate, who is on the other side of life is doing would be difficult. They will pressure you to join them in taking drugs, which you are not their standard or class, telling you that if you don’t take the drug, you don’t belong to their class.

The basic thing we are trying to do now is how to reach them so that they can be able to ‘say no to drugs’. There are so many factors we have noticed recently while the youths are going into drugs. We have noticed that for them to belong to some clubs in schools now, they must initiate that child into taking drugs”.

He concluded by saying that drug abuse is taking place in the Universities and that he has noticed it even in secondary schools of recent. “This was our observation about their clandestine way of recruit other children into taking drugs”, he concluded.
Experts said without supply there won’t be drug use and that NDLEA should cut supply to cut the use and reduce the abuse.