Abuse of psychotropic substance worsens among married women, students in Kano

In the last five years, Kano has maintained top position among frontline states of drug abusers. Hard drug merchants found Kano market robustly attractive to peddle their illicit trade, ostensibly due to the increasing size of Kano population and large business enterprises that attract people from all walks of life.

With an estimation of about 15 million population, the largest Northern city, drug addiction in Kano according to National Drug Law Enforcement Agency NDLEA is consuming about 37 percent of youths mostly men on a daily basis, a situation posing devastating threat to the future generation.

Despite the incessant seizure of the illicit drugs by operators of NDLEA in Kano, the proliferation of the addicts and movement of the narcotics in Kano markets uncontrollably strive.
Beyond the consumption of narcotics among young men, majority of them jobless, the ugly trend is presently trickling down to more vulnerable women, predominantly housewives and students of secondary schools in the state.

Information gathered in Kano revealed that the new trend of women drug abusers has reached the rate at which government must do something urgently to save the future of generations yet unborn.

Buttressing the fact, chairman of a Kano-based non-governmental organization, Youth Awareness Forum on Drugs Abuse, Abubakar Maitomaki, told The Guardian the increase in the number of women involved in drug abuse was due to lack of awareness on the inherent danger.
Abubakar who was also a former drug addict advocated strict regulation on cigarette consumption saying that more than 90 per cent of drug addicts begin with the smoking of cigarette.

According to Abubakar “ When we started the awareness campaign against drug abuse, we realized that people especially the youths, girls and boys are not even aware of the dangers. They were just doing it for fun. Again we would blame many parents for not taking care of their children. Part of what we are doing is to engage on street enlightenment against the bad habit and we hope people will change.”

Speaking on the state of drug addiction in Kano, NDLEA commander in the state Alh. Hamza Umar insisted that the proliferation of drugs addiction in Kano was not unconnected to uncontrolled movement of psychotropic drugs within Kano markets which eventually gives easy access at cheaper price to consumers.

The NDLEA commander who affirmed the increase in the intake of Psychotropic substance especially among women explained that NDLEA is presently engaging traditional leaders, religious and voluntary youth associations to win the battle against abusers of drugs in Kano.

Although Hamza who pointed that the United Nations class A category of hard drugs include cocaine, heroin, cannabis are elitists drugs and may not be found in large quantity in Kano, insisted that many youths consume psychotropic substance.

“ Yes, Kano may be leading psychotropic drugs consumption like Codeine, Tramadol and cough syrup and even many unclassified substances like lizard feaces and the likes for obvious reasons. It is available anywhere you go, there is no control over the spread and it is also very easy.