Seizures in Nigeria's drug crisis total N500 billion per year.

 

The drug problem in Nigeria is a growing concern, with the street value of seized drugs exceeding half a billion naira in just 12 months. Shockingly, more than two-thirds of drugs are going undetected, leaving Nigeria in a drug dungeon. The country is walking a tightrope of national drug addiction and terrible damage, without declaring an emergency on illicit drugs and marshalling a collective effort to strengthen the war against drug cartels, traffickers, and ignorant users.

Nigeria has become a haven for retailers of illicit drugs. These substances are now available across the streets of major cities and are popular among the youths. They are often cheaper than an average soft drink and used as bait for the uninitiated. The substances include Diazepam, Rohypnol, marijuana, methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, Colorado, codeine, opioids, tramadol, their synthetic variants, and other psychotropic substances. Street names for the drugs appear in different pseudonyms like molly or X, roofies, banku, white, Thailand, Ice, schoolboy/little C, upper speed, special k, Acid, loud, Arizona, Gegemu, Eskay, kush, skushies, among others.

The supply chain for these drugs is occupied by drug barons, cartels, and traffickers with footprints nationwide and on traditional international drug routes. Despite the revamped efforts of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), which seized over 1.4 million worth of drugs in 2022, stakeholders are unanimous that the war against drugs must be intentional, retooled, and all-embracing if the country must pull back from the looming national drug addiction.

Security agencies have recently arrested a 34-year-old South American from Suriname, Dadda Lorenzo Harvy Albert, at Port Harcourt International Airport (PHIA), Rivers State, for importing into Nigeria 117 parcels of cocaine concealed in extra-large latex condoms factory packed inside bottles of 100ml body spray. The suspect claimed he departed his country, Suriname, located in the North Eastern coast of South America on April 2, for São Paulo, Brazil, and from Sao Paulo to Nigeria on Friday, April 7, 2023, on board a Qatar Airways flight in search of his long-lost Nigerian father, whom he called ‘Omini.’