NEWISSUES
The Ogun State Commandant of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Jane Ibiba Odili, has said women are more addicted and affected by drugs than men.
Odili, in an interview with DAILY POST, stated that there is a drastic increase of female drug abusers in the state and urged them to come out and get help.
She lamented that in 2023, about 35 cases were recorded and the abusers who were within the age bracket of 15-30 years, were usually drawn to the act by their partners, peer pressure and most times the country’s economic hardship.
She said, “The female body is a bit more complicated than that of the male counterpart, so because of that, when women abuse drugs, they get easily addicted than the men and also have more challenges going off drugs than men.
“Because of their community roles as caregivers and nurturers, we discovered that when there is a problem of drug abuse, women tend to suffer more.”
The commandant disclosed that the trend discovered among female abusers in the state was the use of ‘Fenuja , Skushis’ and weed which was planted and cultivated within the state.
“There is a trend we have discovered so far among drug users, especially women in the state; a lot of our women folks are involved in alcohol and what we’re saying now is that there are different concoctions.
“You know in the past, you just had one alcohol mixed but now you have different kinds of roots, different kinds of substances mixed with alcohol.”
“We have ‘skushi’. We even have one that is locally called ‘fenu ja’ which is very common among women, they will just put it inside their mouth.
“Then we have cannabis which is known as weed, sold on the street and is also cultivated in Ogun State; so, because it’s cultivated here, it is available, accessible and affordable.
“We also see the consumption of cough syrup containing codeine, which is also very commonly used among our women folk and then tramadol which is originally a pain killer but highly abused by both sex.
“Between last year and this year, we can say on average, there’s a general increase for the males and the females but, I want to make a sub clarification for female drug abusers.
“Women who are involved in drug abuse in our communities are ashamed and afraid to come out. So these records might not be able to realistically capture the number of women,” she added.
She added that the command in line with the national drug policies of Nigeria was employing strategies to help women who were drug abusers.
