Drug Abuse: Don advises FG to take decisive action
Drugs
By Aminu Garko
Kano , Prof. Usman Yusuf, Former Chief Executive of National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS), has called on federal government to take stiffer penalties against scrupulous element who engage in selling of cough syrup in the country.
Yusuf made the call while delivering a keynote address at a one day symposium on drug abuse and moral decadence organized by Initiative for Community Action Against Drug Abuse in Kano on Wednesday.
He expressed worry that bandits, IPOB, Boko Haram, phone snatchers among others perpetrated the crimes under the influence of drugs.
According to him, “Sheikh Gumi and I went into the deep forest to meet with the bandits in states across the north, we saw the bandits were mainly kids between the ages of 10-13 years carrying big guns, smoking marijuana and pushing Pentax.
“My message is nobody will solve the problem for us. The problem is ours. We have to stand up and solve the problem ourselves.
“Pentax, Boska, Sudrex, codeine, tramadol are not manufactured here, we know where they were brought from. We must mitigate (cut off) the supply chain.
“And anybody in any community, whether a settler or an indigene that is found selling any of these drugs should face the full wrath of the law.
“We must be serious about this. It is destroying our society and our children.
The NDLEA are doing there best and cannot do it alone.
“I call on our community leaders, traditional ruler and others to all get involved. The parents too must keep their eye on their wards on the kind of peer groups they keep,”Yusuf said.
Similarly, the former President and Council Member of Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria, Ahmed Yakasai said it is battling with fake and hard drugs in four markets namely Sabon Gari, Ariaria, Onitisha and Idumata markets hence the need to open a Central Wholesale Centre to checkmate menace of drug abuse but some disgruntled elements were resisting the plan and relocation of the drug sellers to the CWC in Kano.
He however called on the students and other participants at the symposium to say no to drug abuse as it does no good to them rather destroying their future.
Earlier, the Vice Chancellor, Yusuf Maitama Sule University, Prof. Mukhtar Kurawa said the institution has zero tolerance for drug abuse and as such upon intake of new entrants it subjects it students to series of orientation on drug abuse.
