NDLEA and protest against scarcity of cannabis

SIR: In the thick of the protests that swept across most states in Nigeria, it was shocking to see a protester bearing a placard with the message, “Cana Price Too High.” The protest was dubbed #EndBadGovernance and was organised to vent public displeasure against the increased rate of inflation, poverty, hunger and the perennial insecurity plaguing the country.  How did “Cana” come into the picture?

It will interest people to know that “Cana” is a street name for cannabis or marijuana, a widely used illicit drug.  A bit of background will help to place the placard’s message in proper perspective. The abuse of cannabis is one of the factors driving Nigeria’s high drug use prevalence, which was estimated to be 14.4 per cent in 2018 according to an NBC/ UNODC survey.

One of the embarrassing findings of the National Drug Use and Health Survey of 2018 was the fact that 10.6 million Nigerians abused cannabis, thereby making us the country with one of the highest abusers of the psychoactive plant. Worse still, cannabis cultivation has gained ground across many states in the country, including Ondo, Ekiti, Osun, Delta, Ogun and Edo.

Over two generations, smoking cannabis became so entrenched in our society that young people considered it fashionable to smoke weed openly and in videos. That placard was a stark reminder of the need for society to ensure that cannabis use and its cultivation are eradicated in Nigeria.

The other latent message from that placard is that cannabis users are beginning to feel the heat of the efforts to curb the availability of “weed” by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA). No doubt, operatives of the anti-narcotic agency have stepped up their raids on cannabis farms across the states in the past three years.

The relentless efforts of NDLEA have led to seizures and destruction of large quantities of cannabis consignments across the country. The implication is an effective disruption in the supply chain, which makes it difficult for cannabis to get to the users. That has inevitably led to scarcity and a spike in the price of the substance in the illicit drug market.

However, we must not be deceived that the anti-narcotic agency can salvage the situation alone. I recommend we all join hands together to fight this scourge, from the government down to the family. We can only win the war against illicit drugs by working together and in close collaboration with NDLEA.
 
Kalthum Alhassan wrote from Kano.