One out of four drug users in Taraba is a woman – Marwa

The Executive Chairman of the Nigerian Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Buba Marwa, has said that one out of four drug users in Taraba is a woman.

He stated this on Friday in Jalingo while in the state to carry out the destruction of the second phases of various illicit drugs.

According to him, over four tons of illicit drugs have been earmarked for destruction in Taraba by the agency.

Marwa, who spoke through the Zonal Commander Zone B Yola, Alhaji Idris Bello, urged the public to endeavour to collaborate with the agency to reduce the menace of illicit drugs in the state and the country at large to the barest minimum.

Stressing that the exercise was one of the hallmark of the global drug control mechanism, said the need to promptly destroy the confiscated drugs has become necessary stating that “they posed serious danger to human life if they are continued to be kept around.”

The NDLEA boss who went ahead to state that the United Nations Office on Drugs Control (UNODC) in its 2018 survey stated that Nigeria had 14.3 drug users, said Taraba at the time had 213,000 drug users representing 13 per cent of its population.

Identifying the geographic location of the state as one of the major challenge hindering the agency from reaching out to major drug dealers, beckoned at all stakeholders to key into the anti-drug campaign.

Drugs listed by him to have been destroyed are 3,158.701 kilograms of cannabis sativa and 900.667 kilograms of psychotropic substances.

He listed some of the trending psychotropic substances to includes Tramadol, Pentazocine injection, Codeine, Rophynol Diazepam and other non conventional drugs which he Christened “Akuskura ” he said, have just been discovered.