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Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has urged the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and other stakeholders to step up efforts towards breaking illicit drug supply and distribution chains.
Osinbajo was the Special Guest of Honour at the United Nations International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking yesterday, at the State House Banquet Hall, Abuja. The event was organised by the NDLEA, in collaboration with United Nations Office on Drugs (UNODC), MTN and EU.
The vice president commended the NDLEA for the impressive number of drug users it had counselled and rehabilitated within the year.
“The number of drug trafficking cases reported this past week proves that there is even much more illicit drug activity ongoing. The expressed vision of the NDLEA goes beyond getting more drug criminals arrested; it is to have no drug criminals at all. We must, therefore, deepen the effort.
“Relentlessly breaking illicit drug supply chains and distribution networks; discouraging drug use through intensive outreach and sensitisation; and, also, promptly prosecuting traffickers.
“But, above all, we must intensify rehabilitation of drug addicts because what we are faced with is, indeed, a public health crisis – a crisis that is taking lives, destroying families and shattering communities.
“I am glad to hear that in 2021, about 8,000 drug users were counselled and rehabilitated by the NDLEA, and in the first half of this year alone, over 11,000 drug users have been counselled and treated.’’
He said that there must be a multi-dimensional and holistic approach to tackling drug abuse.
Osinbajo regretted that access to illicit drugs became easier with online sales and contact-less drug transactions– both influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said that communities everywhere must rise to this challenge, adding the Federal Government would continue to support the NDLEA to fulfil its mandate.
The vice president said that through data-driven and evidence-based policy making, enduring and sustainable solutions to the underlying causes of drug abuse would be continuously unearthed.
Earlier in his opening speech, NDLEA Chairman, Buba Marwa, said that the World Drug Report 2021 indicated that drug use killed almost half a million people in 2019.
He said the report showed that drug use disorders resulted in 18 million years of healthy life lost, mostly due to opioids.
“We are beginning to see similar patterns from the findings of the National Drug Use and Health Survey 2018. The survey recorded an estimated 376,000 high-risk drug users in the country, of which one in every five injects drugs.
“And with a total of 80,000 People Who Inject Drugs (PWID), the risk of the spread of HIV, Hepatitis C and other blood-borne diseases was high and this, in turn, raises the stake of a public health crisis.
“Hence, there was no questioning the rationale of treatment for drug users,’’ he said.
