Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, DG, NAFDAC

Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, Director-General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has urged parents to bond and pay more attention to upbringing of their children to prevent drug abuse.

Adeyeye made the plea at the NAFDAC and Youth Against Drug Abuse (YADA) stakeholders consultative meeting organised by the agency and the Young Pharmacists Group (YPG) in Lagos.

Themed: “Securing the Future; Preventing Drug Abuse, NAFDAC-YADA is a school-based drug abuse prevention programme aimed at reducing drug abuse in secondary schools by teaching students what they need to know and do in order to prevent drug abuse.

It will also empower parents on what they need to know and do, including guidance on how to get treatment for drug use.

According to Adeyeye, bonding with children will ensure that our children are safe from this growing problem called drug abuse.

“Our bonds with our children is a strong protective factor against drug abuse. We believe that if we get to our children early, we stand a better chance of preventing drug abuse. Drug abuse is a growing global concern all over the world; people are working to unravel and find solution to this problem”.

“Drug abuse does not only affect us today, but strongly endangers the future of human society. Just over two weeks ago, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)- the first comprehensive national drug use survey- was released.

“The survey reveals certain salient issues that call for immediate response. One in seven persons aged 15 to 64 years had used a drug (other than alcohol and tobacco) in 2017,’’ Adeyeye said.

The NSDUH reveals that one out of every four high risk drug users have been arrested for drug related offences which includes; possession (73 per cent).

“Others include: theft (12 per cent); sex workers (5 per cent); burglary (4 per cent) and shop lifting (2 per cent). This data only shows the number of arrests. So, if we consider that most crimes go unreported, then, we will see that we have a huge problem on our hands,” Adeyeye said.

She said that the agency was doing a lot to rid the society of this problem.

“Note that despite our efforts in achieving this, several drugs in unapproved strengths continue to infiltrate our country through our porous borders. This is, especially true of tramadol and we will continue to work until we stamp this out”.

“Our first major goal is to ensure that these drugs are available in right quantities to those who need them for medical and research purposes. Making sure that they are unavailable to those who abuse them”.

“One in five people in this category suffers from drug use disorders, which means that drug abuse situation is so bad that they need treatment. Many social factors have contributed to an increase in drug abuse in our society. They include: decline in family values, lack of parental guidance, peer pressure, social media influence, peer pressure and unemployment,” Adeyeye said.

She said that the consequences of drug abuse in today’s society were many and varied.

“We encounter them in those young people both males and females”.

“Many of them have abandoned home and school to live in joints and under the bridge chasing and seeking drugs. We encounter them in many drug-related traffic accidents which claims many lives every year. We meet them in the hospitals where many people are in bed with different sorts of drug induced or related diseases,” Adeyeye said.

She said that NAFDAC-YADA would focus on the transition periods in secondary education which has been identified as key risk periods for drug abuse in youths.

“The programme is composed of three main components which include: preventive education Series, positive parenting and referral to appropriate treatment facilities,” Adeyeye said.

In her remarks, Mrs Edosa Ogbeide, the Director, NAFDAC Lagos State Office (LSO), urged individuals to participate actively to put the state ahead in tackling the problem of drug abuse.

Ogbeide, quoting the 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, said 14.4 per cent of people aged between 15 and 64 years in Nigeria used drugs at least once in 2016.

“This is higher than the global average of 5.6 per cent. Lagos seems to be the worst hit with four out of every 10 people using drugs, the highest of any state in Nigeria”.

“The old belief that drug abuse is a masculine phenomenon is also fast changing. One out every four drug users, according to the national survey, is a woman. Lagos is also the second on the list of states with the most difficulty to access drug treatment facilities despite the presence of a number of treatment centers,” she said.

Ogbeide said that realisation called for a variety of concerted responses at all levels including reducing availability of drugs to abusers and improving availability for genuine needs.

They were educating young people, improving access to drug treatment centres, harm reduction programmes, improving access to treatment of infectious diseases like tuberculosis, HIV and Hepatitis drug abusers,” she said. (NAN)