‘To safeguard girls and women’ — UNODC calls for more investment in drug abuse prevention in Nigeria

Oliver Stolpe, the country representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in Nigeria, says the federal government must invest more in drug abuse prevention.

Speaking on Wednesday at the 2024 World Drug Report launch, Stolpe said Nigeria should also ensure drug treatments are made accessible to young girls.

He said the report showed a 20 percent increase in drug use in the past 10 years, adding that 292 million, or 5.6 percent, of people aged 15 to 64 were involved in illicit drugs in 2022.

“Indeed, the evidence is clear: Nigeria needs to invest more in prevention with a strong focus on children and youths, in particular girls and young women,” the UNODC chief said.

He said the report identified cannabis as the most abused drug in the world, followed by opioids with 228 million and 60 million users, respectively.

“While cannabis remains the main drug sourced, trafficked, and used in Africa, the continent continues to be used as a transit area for drugs such as cocaine, heroin, and methamphetamine,” Stolpe said.

“Drugs transiting through Africa have now penetrated the local markets, thus adding to the health challenges already existing in relation to cannabis use.

“The non-medical use of tramadol, a pharmaceutical opioid that is not under international control, poses another significant risk.

“Tramadol used non-medically is typically illicitly manufactured and marketed in higher dosages than the one produced legally.
More than 90 percent of tramadol seized in the past 5 years worldwide has been seized in Africa, predominantly West Africa.

“Another threat to public health is being posed by all sorts of mixtures and concoctions, such as the locally known Gutterwater and Monkey Tail.

“These mixtures typically contain a number of harmful substances, such as various pharmaceutical drugs (e.g., benzodiazepines), alcohol, and solvents.”

He also called for an overhaul of the health sector to give room for upgrades in drug abuse response in the country.

“Nigeria needs to invest more in prevention with a strong focus on children and youths, in particular girls and young women,” he noted.

“After the exceptionally successful testing of the school-based drug prevention programme UNPLUGGED involving half a million secondary school children in Nigeria, the programme should be rolled out to all 28,000 public and private secondary schools.

“We need to enhance the resilience against drug use among the millions of out-of-school children, for example, through sports-based initiatives such as LINE UP LIVE UP (LULU).”