Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) may need to up its game following the disclosure of an alarming number of people consuming hard drugs in Africa’s largest economy. Currently, out of 14.3 million Nigerians using any form of drugs, 376,000 are said to be ‘high risk drug users’.
No fewer than 80,000 Nigerians inject drugs. Those who take cannabis are 10.640 million, while 4.610 million take opioids (tramadol, codeine, morphine). Whereas 87,000 Nigerians consume heroin, those who take cocaine are no fewer than 92,000. In addition, 481,000 Nigerians take tranquilisers/sedatives, 238,000 take amphetamines, and so on. These, among others, were revealed in the first comprehensive nationwide national drug use survey titled ‘Drug Use in Nigeria – 2018’.
The report, which was officially launched on Tuesday, was a product of a survey conducted by the National Survey on Drug Use and Health and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) as well as the Centre for Research and Information on Substance Abuse (CRISA), with technical support from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The use of drugs is higher in Lagos, Kano, Oyo, Rivers, Delta and Imo States. The states where it was more difficult to access treatment for drug use disorders are Yobe, Imo, Bayelsa, Rivers and Lagos.
In the North Central zone, 236,000 people use drugs in Benue, Kogi (212,000), Kwara (213,000), Nasarawa (152,000), Niger (330,000), Plateau (240,000), and FCT Abuja (180,000).
In the North East zone, 370,000 people use drugs in Adamawa, Bauchi (530,000), Borno (350,000), Gombe (350,000), Taraba (213,000), and Yobe (300,000).
Looking at the North West zone, an estimated 211,000 people use drugs in Jigawa, Kaduna (462,000), Kano (1.070 million), Katsina (481,000), Kebbi (286,000), Sokoto (230,000), and Zamfara (312,000).
In the South East zone, an estimated 216,000 people use drugs in Abia, Anambra (317,000), Ebonyi (188,000), Enugu (370,000), and Imo (500,000).
In the South West zone, 200,000 people are estimated to be using drugs in Ekiti, Lagos (2.117 million), Ogun (440,000), Ondo (401,000), Osun (336,000), and Oyo (930,000).
In the South-South zone, it is estimated that 352,000 people in Akwa Ibom use drugs. In Bayelsa, they are 163,000, Cross River (222,000), Delta (513,000), Edo (330,000), and Rivers (580,000).
The survey found higher past-year prevalence of drug use among the “southern” geopolitical zones (range 13.8 percent-22.4 percent) compared to the “northern” geopolitical zones (range 10 percent-13.6 percent). The high prevalence of drug use in the southern zones is said to be driven primarily by Lagos and Oyo States.
The estimated annual prevalence of drug use is 10 percent in the North-Central zone, equivalent to 1.5 million past year drug users. The extent of drug use in the North-Central zone is 30 percent lower than the overall national past year prevalence of drug use. Cannabis, cough syrups (containing codeine or dextromethorphan) and pharmaceutical opioids (tramadol, codeine, morphine) are the three groups of substances with high prevalence in the North-Central zone.
In Nigeria, one in seven persons aged 15-64 years had used a drug (other than tobacco and alcohol) in the past year. The past year prevalence of any drug use is estimated at 14.4 percent (range 14.0 percent-14.8 percent), corresponding to 14.3 million people aged 15-64 years who had used a psychoactive substance in the past year for non-medical purposes.
Cannabis was the most widely used substance in the past year in Nigeria, followed by pharmaceutical opioids (mainly tramadol, and to a lesser extent codeine or morphine) and cough syrups containing codeine or dextromethorphan.
“Drug use and its consequences are fast becoming one of the increasingly talked about challenges across our country today,” said Yemi Kale, statistician-general of the federation.
“It has, and still continues to affect the lives of many individuals, families, organisations and communities across our country. Many families have been broken, lives lost and relationships destroyed as a result of drug use,” Kale said.
“It has also contributed to several adverse public health conditions and increased criminal activities. Accordingly, it is time to put in place comprehensive measures designed to tackle this growing problem before it becomes an even worse national challenge,” he added.
Among every 4 drug users in Nigeria, 1 is a woman. More men (annual prevalence of 21.8 percent or 10.8 million men) than women (annual prevalence of 7.0 percent or 3.4 million women) reported past-year drug use in Nigeria. The highest levels of any past-year drug use were among those aged 25-39 years. 1 in 5 persons who had used drugs in the past year is suffering from drug usage.
Cannabis is the most commonly used drug. An estimated 10.8 percent of the population or 10.6 million people had used cannabis in the past year. The average age of initiation of cannabis use among the general population was 19 years.
Cannabis use was 7 times higher among men (18.8 percent among men vs. 2.6 percent of women), while the gender gap in the non-medical use of pharmaceutical opioids (such as tramadol) was less marked (6 percent among men versus 3.3 percent among women).
An estimated 4.7 percent of the population, that is, 4.6 million people, had used opioids (such as tramadol, codeine, or morphine) for non-medical purposes in the past year.
The non-medical use of cough syrups containing codeine and dextromethorphan is estimated at 2.4 percent of the adult population (nearly 2.4 million people). The misuse of cough syrups is almost comparable among men (2.3 percent) and women (2.5 percent).
The non-medical use of tranquilisers (0.5 percent), and the use of ecstasy (0.3 percent), inhalants (0.3 percent), amphetamines (0.2 percent), and cocaine (0.1 percent), though not insignificant, remains lower than the drugs mentioned earlier.
Overall, an estimated 376,000 were estimated to be high risk drug users. The majority of high risk drug users were regular users of opioids.
One (1) in 5 high risk drug users injects drugs. The majority (78 percent) of those injecting drugs were men. The most common drugs injected in the past year were pharmaceutical opioids (such as tramadol, codeine, or morphine), followed by cocaine, heroin and tranquilisers.
Poly-drug use was very common – among high-risk drug users nearly all (95 percent) as compared to nearly half of the drug users in the general population reported using either simultaneously or concurrently more than one drug in the past year.
An estimated 87,000 (nearly 0.1 percent of the population) had used heroin in the past year. The mean age of initiation of heroin use was 22 years, and almost half of regular heroin users reported smoking it. Proportionally more women than men were likely to report injecting heroin.
Geographically, the highest past-year prevalence of drug use was found in the southern geopolitical zones (past year prevalence ranging between 13.8 percent and 22.4 percent) compared to the northern geopolitical zones (past year prevalence ranging between 10 percent and 13.6 percent).
Nearly 40 percent of high-risk drug users indicated a need for treatment of drug use disorders. Most of the high risk drug users considered it was difficult to access drug treatment. The cost of treatment and stigma attached to drug use and seeking treatment were cited as the primary barriers in accessing or availing drug treatment services.
Nearly one quarter of high-risk drug users had been arrested for a drug-related offence during the course of their drug use, while the majority (73 percent) had been arrested for possession of drugs. Many high risk drug users had also been arrested for theft (12 percent), sex work (5 percent), burglary (4 percent) and shoplifting (2 percent).
Two-thirds of people who used drugs reported having serious problems as a result of their drug use, such as missing school or work, doing a poor job at work/school or neglecting their family or children.
Nearly 1 in 8 persons (12 percent of the adult population) in Nigeria has suffered some kind of consequence due to another person’s drug use. Among those who had experienced any consequences, most had felt threatened or afraid of someone’s use of drugs (8 percent of the adult population).
Other important consequences that people had experienced were that someone using drugs had harmed them physically (5 percent of the adult population) or that they had stopped seeing a relative or friend due to their drug use (5 percent of the adult population).
“The unveiled National Drug Use Survey in Nigeria is yet another step in our commitment as a National Statistics System to deepen the production and use of evidence from data, to correctly understand our challenges, prescribe solutions to them and to over time, monitor and evaluate the efficacy of those prescriptions,” Kale said.
During the National Household Survey, 38,850 households that spread across rural and urban areas were canvassed at respondents’ residences. Additionally, the NSPDU involved interviews with a total of 9,344 problem drug users across all 36 states of the federation, as well as the Federal Capital Territory. A total of 2,787 persons were interviewed for the Key Informant Survey (KIS).
The average daily expenditure on cannabis in the past 30 days among cannabis users within the general population was N363, equivalent to $1.15. Considering that the minimum wage of a full time worker in Nigeria is N 18,000 (or $57) per month, the average daily expenditure on cannabis use amounts to almost 2 percent of the minimum monthly wage of a full-time worker in Nigeria.
However, high-risk drug users spent considerably more of their earnings on cannabis per day in the past month, that is N1,340 or $4.25.
Iheanyi Nwachukwu
