The Zonal Commander of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Zone 9, Assistant Commander-General of Narcotics, ACGN Tunde John Omotosin, was at the Tribune House, Imalefalafia Street, Ibadan, during the week. During the visit, he spoke on the importance of sustained sensitisation of the general public on the dangers of drug abuse and what fate awaits those who indulge in drug use and trade. Deputy Editor, SAM NWAOKO, brings excerpts of the interaction.
What are some of your experiences on this job which has taken you around the country?
When I was in Kebbi State, I rehabilitated a medical doctor. He was with me for six months. How did he get involved with drugs? The drug he should have used for medical purpose, he abused it and he got hooked on it. So nobody is above it. But it is a bad signal that vulnerable children are getting more and more involved and that is why we are out on sensitisation. We go to most of the secondary schools – the last one we went to was in Arometa in Eleyele, Ibadan.
The mandate of the NDLEA is on two major strategies: Reduction of supply and drug demand reduction. That is the reason we have come to seek the support of the Nigerian Tribune to help us pass the information to the general public. By so doing, one or two persons may choose to stop the indulgence of drug use. NDLEA does not joke with sensitisation, it is very important to us and we want partnership on this because prevention is cheaper and better than cure. Our men, you see with guns and so on, are out there to ensure supply reduction. They are trying to cut supply so that the thing does not go to other areas. Imagine us not being around for a long while, the mere fact that our men are around there means that people that have access to drugs in that area, who may want to distribute, will be scared. Some will not even be able to bring it to the road because if they are arrested, that is the end of it. So, it is important that we partner especially on the need to pass the right information and facts about drug abuse.
I did a documentary when I was State Commander in Delta. We had a collaboration with the state government and we went to about 87 schools. We went to the extent of pushing for drug education in the school curriculum of the state. We do all that and not just to arrest. About 20 years or so, it was more of arrest and arrest but now, we give both reducing drug use and supply balanced attention.
The spot near Guru Maharaji in Ibadan where you have your men is known to almost everybody. But we hear that the cultivation of cannabis is Ondo/Ekiti/Osun axes while the supply is inward Lagos. What do you do about the unmanned areas on the supply from Ondo, Ekiti and Osun areas?
The major farms are in Osun and Ondo, but the storage is in Ibadan. I am saying this because I’m familiar with the terrain and I had worked as operations commander in Osun. When the foreign UNODC officials came around, we went to the farms and destroyed many of them and we arrested people who told us their modus operandi. It is easier here in Ibadan to store than where it was planted. Nobody would believe that there is a warehouse in a place like Ibadan because most of the farmlands we destroy are not here. But this is where they store. In the dead of the night, they traffic these drugs to the far north. These drugs, sometimes, are not meant for consumption here; some are for some other countries. We don’t produce the psychotropic substances here – cocaine is not produced in Nigeria. They are from South America. How can drugs from South America be found here in Nigeria? They came through the road, the airports, the seaports, the international boundaries. We have made a lot of arrests at that spot. If we were not making reasonable arrests and progress from that spot, we wouldn’t have been there. NDLEA commands are appraised by the arrests and seizures and the convictions you secure. That spot is very vital, something is going on there, and our men are not just there for nothing.
We also recognise the inconvenience that sometimes come with the job we do at such spots, but we need to salvage the situation. We need to save our youths and we must not mortgage our future. Drugs are the worst enemies we have. If you visit rehabilitation centres, you will agree with me because drug users are never productive. Also, to avoid road crashes on our roads, you must curb drug abuse.
How much has modernity impacted your operations as an organisation?
Because of modernity, we are having various new trends. The Yahoo Yahoo syndrome is one of them and the free money that is associated with it; and when you have free money, you can afford to buy some expensive drugs to take. Some people abuse everyday drugs, which has led to the prohibition of some common drugs. What led to the prohibition of the cough syrup with codeine was the abuse of the drug by young people. If you have cough, medical personnel would recommend cough syrup with codeine and give you the dosage. But those who abuse it will go to the pharmacy, buy it and gulp the entire content of the bottle at a go. Then, some would take up to four or five bottles in a day and thereby cause problems for themselves and others. What about the organs of their body? What do you think causes the rise in kidney failure cases in the country?
Alcohol too is also a drug. It is a depressant. When you take it to a certain extent it becomes a stimulant. Alcohol is a drug because it exerts pressure by depressing the central nervous system. It also causes lack of coordination, what we refer to as hallucination; hallucination in the sense that the user will not be able to coordinate between time, space and distance. That is why, often, you see them inside gutter because they feel that they are in the comfort of their home. But the law and the society accept alcohol as gateway drug because it prepares a user to take stronger drugs. It would get to a time the body would build tolerance.
Even kolanuts are drugs. It contains caffeine but kolanut is our cultural identity. There is nearly no ceremony where kolanut is not used, and we produce it in the South West. The people that cherish it most are the Igbo while the Hausa consume it the most.
But there is no law against the kolanut.
Yes, there is no law against kolanut in Nigeria.
Why is there no law against kolanut?
It is stimulant. It is like you taking coffee, for example.
For instance, many secondary school children are now indulging in socially unconventional drugs. There is a plant we refer to as ‘zegemy’. It is a very potent drug. It is more common in the North. It’s not in the South but the problem is that it can be transported here down south. The plant is not common yet and not many people know about it in the South.
Cannabis Sativa (Igbo) is referred to TAC9 (Tetrahydrocannabinol 9) because that is the most active ingredient in the plant. It has over 600 chemical compounds but TAC9 is the most active ingredient because it is what causes hallucination. The modern trend is not to smoke it as we knew it back in the days. They now lace cookies, chocolate and candies and so on with it.
In the Niger Delta, they soak cannabis with snake in native gin so that the venom in the snake would be forced out and they would take it. The cannabis extracts have been removed, the active ingredients have diffused into the ethanol. Now, when such person is arrested, how would you prosecute? Which evidence would you present against him before the court?
That is why we advise that parents should always check on their children and wards. It is very important. Know who your children and wards are mixing with. Carry out sudden inspection of their rooms. Just go to their rooms, once you identify that there is a particular culture they have started imbibing, you see them with dreadlocks or they start carrying ragamuffin muffler, you need to check on them and ask them questions. You need to do this because when the problem comes, you will not be able to manage it, and a lot of our youths have died prematurely in the process of drug abuse. That is why we take it upon ourselves that we must conscientise the minds of the general public about the issue of drug abuse. It is not just to arrest. Once they are arrested and a prima facie case is established, they are going in for it. But what about the users who are the victims? If you go by the UN Protocol on Eradication of Narcotic Drugs, it states that users are victims who need our love, care and attention and after-service. That is, after rehabilitation, you will keep on checking on them so that they don’t relapse. So it is very important and that is why we seek the cooperation of the media and the general public.
What are your plans for those who plant Indian hemp?
Those who plant should know that once the long arm of the law catches any of them, they are going in for it. There is no mercy when it comes to that. From experience, those who plant these drugs only sell it and so on, many of them don’t use it. Most of them do everything with the plant but they don’t use it. This is because they know the inherent danger in indulging in drugs. They know that drug abuse makes one to be useless. Look at some of the area boys, they are mostly useless after taking drugs.
In terms of prevalence of drug use, what is your experience after working in the North and in the South, and what is the success rate you would say the NDLEA has achieved in your sensitisation efforts?
At the macro level, taking my Command which is Oyo and Osun Zone and the state commands as a case study, we are trying our best and we can say that we are on top of the situation. If you visit any of our offices, or you visit any of the federal high courts around then you will know what we are doing. A national survey conducted in 2018 by the European Union and the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime made us to know that 14.3 percent of the Nigerian population indulges in drugs. That is around 44 million people. They indulge in different types of drugs – narcotics, stimulants, depressants, inhalants and solvents; we also have anabolic steroids used mostly by sports people. A lot of sportsmen and women have crashed from grace due to doping.
Some of these drugs are household items which cannot be criminalised – kolanuts, coffee and others, including energy drinks made from kolanut extracts. Coffee, if you are not careful, can raise the blood pressure while alcohol is also a stimulant. In the end, alcohol can damage the kidney and so on. So it is better to avoid them.
What are some of your most interesting experiences on the job because when you started out, it must have been mostly Igbo (cannabis) but there are so many varieties now; what are your interesting experiences on the job?
Emerging trends, like the laughing gas, is an interesting new discovery. We arrested two containers of the gas at Tin Can Island and Apapa Ports. Our men are there and that is why we could arrest them. Let us assume that they escaped us, it would come into the society, some would be left behind and others would go elsewhere. Drug dealers don’t stay in a particular place, they build markets and they distribute through established networks that are well-coordinated, and it is a crime beyond national borders.
Laughing gas is the type of gas used for industrial or domestic purpose. Welders and other technicians use them, but people abuse the gas now. So, when your vehicle’s exhaust has issues, you ordinarily would go to weld it, but the gases they use for these purposes are now being abused. They are modern trends and people are running away from the ones we knew: Igbo because it is cheap and it is available everywhere. Also, because if anyone smokes igbo now, everyone would notice from the odour. But now there are hybrid varieties, like the cannabis indica which is from Canada and the USA. Its TAC level is not as high as that of Nigeria, and it is used medically in those countries for the treatment of glaucoma and as painkillers, etc. But in Nigeria, the NDLEA Act criminalises it. The only drug that you can take are coffee, alcohol, kolanuts, and snuff/tobacco. These are allowed, but if you still don’t take alcohol in moderation, it will tell on you. You can do harm to yourself, your family members and the society. Imagine incidents of a drunken driver who has caused a case of ‘hit and run’; and crashed vehicle and so on. That is why they are all categorised as drugs, although they are socially acceptable.