In a bid to tackle the menace of drug abuse in the country, the President of the Senate Dr. Bukola Saraki has promised to go after importers and distributors of drugs.
The Dr Saraki revealed this even as the Senate begins a roundtable in Kano with state governments, local governments, traditional rulers, the Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria and NGOs, to tackle the menace.
He expressed grave worry in series of tweets on his twitter handle @BukolaSaraki over the current spate of drug abuse prevalent in almost all the states of the country, adding that even nursing mothers were held by the clutches of drugs and other substances.
It was revealed that up to 3 million bottles of "codeine" cough syrup is consumed daily in the North particularly by youths.
“The #DrugAbuse epidemic has been of a particularly virulent nature, touching all social strata and afflicting families and young lives. Not even nursing mothers are spared; future generations are already endangered.
“The stark reality is that so many Nigerians are shadows of their former selves because of drugs. This is intolerable. Furthermore, the very dangerous interplay between dirty money and drug importation, distribution and abuse must stop.
“We need to better understand where the strengths and weaknesses of our drug enforcement agencies lie, in order to be able to take measures to strengthen them.
“We need to send a clear signal from Kano to all Nigerians that this drug use epidemic must be controlled, and can be controlled.
Consequently, the Senate mandated it’s Joint Committee on Drugs and Narcotics and Health to investigate the escalating menace of abuse of cough syrup and other prescriptive drugs.
In acknowledgement of the destructive effect of the growing rate of drug abuse in Kano state, President Muhammadu Buhari while on a working visit recently, ordered a crackdown on drug barons in the country.
