‘14.5% Of Nigerians Use Cannabis, Cocaine’

The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and other stakeholders have decried a situation where 14.5 percent of Nigerians are using cannabis, cocaine, codeine syrup, and other illegal drugs.
Speaking at a forum for the eradication of drug abuse and illicit substances among the youth in Nigeria, yesterday, the Director, Drug Demand Reduction Directorate of the NDLEA, Titus-Awogbuyi Joyce, disclosed that the agency’s in-house data showed that 14.3 million people in Nigeria take hard drugs as at 2018.
She revealed that NDLEA’s data show that one out of four people who use drugs happen to be women.
Data sourced from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) show that 246 million people in the world have used illicit drugs in the past 12 months as of 2014.
The drugs used included cannabis, opiate (such as heroin), cocaine, and amphetamine-type stimulant.
The Minister of State, Budget and National Planning, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, decried the growing incidence of drug abuse in Nigeria.
Represented by his Special Assistant on Inter-Governmental Relations, Abdulrahman Naibi Rajab, the minister said the escalation in the use of hard drugs was affecting national development.