But out of a total of 2,205 people arrested on drug charges in the north-west, only 38 were females – the least, compared to other zones, especially south-south, which led with a total of 269 females.
But
this is because the arrests were made largely for trafficking and use of
narcotics such as cocaine, heroin and cannabis, which constituted over
90 per cent of drug seizure for the year and previous years.
However, the agency faces an uphill task in dealing with the problem of drug abuse by women in the north because, its mandate does not cover cough syrup, the most commonly used substance by the women.
Tablets such as rohypnol, tramadol, diazepam and lexotan, which are abused by northern women, are controlled drugs that are sold only after a doctor’s prescription.
It was gathered that the tablets are usually prescribed for extreme pain such as that experienced by people suffering from the sickle cell disease and neurological disorders. But those intent on getting them for a moment of high easily and readily purchase the drugs.
According to a pharmacist, Kemi Olatundun, controlled drugs “affect the mood and could make the user a danger to herself/himself and to the society”.
She said codeine cough syrup is also classified among control drugs because of the codeine contents, and they are to be sold only at a doctor’s prescription.
The abuse of codeine syrup and these tablets now constitutes the greatest challenge faced by drug officers operating in Northern Nigeria. Since the law does not forbid the drugs from being sold or consumed, it is difficult for law enforcement agencies to tackle the menace.
Hamza Umar, state commander of the NDLEA in Kano, said that the state was witnessing the involvement of more women in drugs, basically cough syrup and off-the-counter drugs like rohypnol, tramadol and others.
Umar disclosed that he had 19 females in detention and that all were arrested in one day for drug abuse. One is a 200 level university student.
“I will not deceive the public. It is indeed increasing. We are seeing more women now getting involved in drug. I just sent our operatives into town and within one hour they rounded up over 100 girls involved in drugs. And they found these girls in just two places inside Sabongari, and they cut across all ages. Some even have to breastfeed their children here because they left the children at home,” he revealed in a chat.
His counterparts in Sokoto, Zamfara, Kaduna and Katsina have made similar revelations. The NDLEA Commander in Sokoto said the involvement of women in drugs is now a serious problem not just in the state, but in the whole of the North. He told our reporter in an interview that while men abuse cannabis, the women now abuse cough syrup with codeine content.
“To tell you the truth, I think the issue of cough syrup came around 2005, that’s when we begin to see a proliferation of cough syrup. I started this job in the ‘90s and we never saw anything like this. It has become an epidemic. I had worked in Lagos and Ondo and I have never arrested anybody over cough syrup or heard any case of abuse of cough syrup,” he lamented.
Since cough mixture is not regarded as narcotic, it is not captured in the statistics of the NDLEA. But Idris gave an indication of how serious the problem is.
“A former Commander of the NDLEA in Kano said about three million bottles of codeine cough syrup are being consumed daily in Kano state alone,” he stated.
culled from thecable.ng