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World Drugs Day 2019: MFM moves to rescue more addicts

By Maria Diamond
06 July 2019   |   4:32 am
The abuse of drugs and intake of hard substance amongst Nigerian youth has become so alarming that the latest UNODC’s (United Nations Office On Drugs and Crime) research report states that 14.3 million Nigerians between age 15-54 abuse drugs....

A cross session of experts dissecting the issues of drug abuse and control implementation

The abuse of drugs and intake of hard substance amongst Nigerian youth has become so alarming that the latest UNODC’s (United Nations Office On Drugs and Crime) research report states that 14.3 million Nigerians between age 15-54 abuse drugs, alcohol, nicotine, cigarette, heroin, marijuana, codeine and others.

Though some of these drugs are prescription opioids, they are not canter drugs anyone should ordinarily have access to. Yet, people purchase them without prescription in Nigeria, hereby leading a number of people, especially youths into a state of mental illness and death.

Based on this alarming situation, Mountain Top Rehabilitation Centre (MTRC), in commemoration of 2019 World Drugs Day tagged, The Rage Of Drugs And Substance Abuse In Our Society, recently organised a solution base seminar for youths, parents, school proprietors, teachers, High school students, pastors, ministers, counselors and stakeholders at Mountain Of Fire (MFM) International Headquarters, Lagos, in order to sensitise Nigerians on the abuse of drug.

While delivering the keynote address, Assistant General Overseer (G.O) MFM, Pastor Kehinde Adegbolahan, who represented the G.O Dr. D.K. Olukoya, said the aim of the event is to rescue as many people as possible from the addiction of drug.

“Drug abuse and addiction is one of the major problems this generation, especially the youths are facing which eventually end their lives if there is no intervention. Quite a number of people put the blame on bad parenting, bad friends and a number of other vices, which is not entirely wrong. However, there are two major reasons discovered from the scripture. First, there is a vacuum in the heart of every human being that crave extra ordinary attention, which they try to fill with all kinds of things like drugs, sex, education, work and others. The other is the inner negative spirit, which controls their deeds and actions. A lot of drug users struggle to bring this negativities under subjection” he noted.

Pastor Gbolahan, however, said the solution to this issue must start from the root cause of the problem, which lies in the desire to desperately fill the vacuum in the heart and subjection to the spirit of negativities.“80 per cent of Nigerian youths have been captured by drugs and until we deal with the spiritual aspect of this problem through prayers, there will be no meaningful solution” he said.

Apparently, it is not only the youths that abuse drugs; even adults abuse the use of analgesics such as paracetamol, cough syrups and codeine.Research has shown that codeine, if over taken can cause organ failure, which automatically leads to death. Over 3million bottles of cough syrup, which has a high content of codeine are consumed everyday especially amongst youths even secondary school boys and girls. These young ones mix cough syrup in their soft drinks with the intentions to get high, while some believe it improves their mental activeness and help them perform better in their chosen field.

The seminar also captures a panelist session where experts from related fields dissected the issues of drugs, its implications and major causes that ranges from biological genetic linkage, psychological issues, domestic abuse, peer influence and social influence.

The panelists all came to the conclusion as they treated different cases and causes of drug abuse amongst youth with a high rate of addicts in some parts of northern Nigeria that, until government begins to control the use of prescription drugs through firm implementation and enforcement, drug abuse may not be controlled.

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