The Chairman/Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Brigadier General Buba Marwa (Retd), has said that in less than four months, the agency mopped up over 2million kilogrammes of illicit drugs, with over N90bn worth of illicit substances seized.
Marwa said this at the national security summit organised by the House of Representatives.
He said the present figure of 10.6 million Nigerians abusing cannabis is frightening and enough to sound the alarm bell.
Marwa warned that current move by some stakeholders to push for the legalisation of cannabis in Nigeria will rob the country of the gains so far made in the renewed war against drug abuse and trafficking in the country.
The NDLEA boss said it is not possible to be holding a national security summit and at the same time considering legalising illicit substances.
He noted that the strong nexus between drug abuse and the security challenge across the country is incontrovertible.
“Presently, there is no bigger national issue than the issue of insecurity in Nigeria. It is one of the big challenges, if not the biggest, threatening our dear country. Insecurity is, today, a full-blown malady with many manifestations such as insurgency, banditry, kidnapping, murder, robbery, reprisal killing, name it.
“The relationship between substance abuse and crime is a fact. What is clear is that no sane human being will rise against society to commit the kind of gross atrocities as we are witnessing in recent years, except such an individual has first hardened his heart with mind-altering substances,” the NDLEA chair pointed out.
He stressed that the use of illicit drugs contributes to the worsening insecurity problems in the country.
Marwa added, “The use of drugs for perverted purposes is not a new phenomenon, neither is it something that just started in Nigeria. There are precedents in world history.
“So beyond speculations and armchair theories, there is ample evidence, from report statistics and from empirical data from the field, to conclude that the use of illicit substances is a contributing factor to the worsening security situation in Nigeria. And if this is so, Nigeria should be the last country to consider a law to legalise marijuana in any shape or form.”
