For drugs, their tomorrow is mortgaged

Her daily routine was a fixed itinerary before her abode was sacked by the recent gush of water at the Kuramo Beach on Victoria Island, Lagos. Becky, 36, mother of 20-year-old Johnny, who is an undergraduate and a music director in his church, is on a steady rise to nowhere.

Becky could pass for a pretty lady any day, but the drugs she consumes are taking their tolls on her life.

From time to time, she spits blood. Her eyes are popped out as if it will fall off from its socket any moment. She looks dry or rather, very bony like a person that could break into two.

“I often suffer peeled skin, my hair falls off and I crave food as if I should eat every second of the day. Most times, I end up not being able to eat anything.”

Her romance with drugs has not been romantic.

She said: “This is the way I have been living for many years: I wake up 5.30am each day. The first thing I do is to ease my bowels. But I do that with a wrap of “skunk” -a blend of marijuana with ata-gigun, to douse the stench in the latrine. The problem is, if I don’t take it, the ‘game’ won’t come out… You know what I mean? (Laughs. I stay in there for about 30minutes every day. Then, I go take my bath. Thereafter, it’s time for breakfast. And I don’t care what I have to eat; I gulp down the small bit I usually take with another wrap of ‘coke’ (cocaine) or heroin. For my lunch, I accompany that with another fold of ‘skunk’ or plain Igbo. My mood determines what I smoke. And in the night, I take ‘Met’, you know it?

“But for whatever I snuffle, I wash it down with my choice drink, Calidon. Do you know it? And when I don’t have money to buy any of these, I beg for money from those who come to fetch water from the man next door or passers’ by.”

A bottle of Calidon costs N70 and she takes five a day. With no means of livelihood, she has to continually beg to buy the drugs and Calidon.

One of her former neighbours, who facilitated the meeting with Becky, said: “It’s like the stuff that she consumes is taking its toll on her. She often complains about ‘biting effects’ on the inside of her stomach. And when the thing starts like that, she will beg for food and may even end up not eating. Sometimes, she could even be sick. We learnt that her parents are somewhere in Ikotun area of Lagos. But none of us has ever seen them. In fact, whenever she gets ‘high’ or ‘tipsy’; none of us would have peace in this house. There was a particular night she was so ‘high’, she lost her balance and fell by the beach side. It was a night that the traditional people had announced that every resident should keep indoors because they wanted to do the ‘oro’ festival. She told us the next morning that while she laid there helpless, she whispered a word of prayer unto God. Shortly thereafter, she said she saw one of our neighbours who also was rushing home from office in order not to be caught by the ‘oro’ masquerade. On seeing her, the guy carried her home and that was how she was rescued. If we had to recount all we know about Becky, you won’t be able to do any other it. And you won’t believe it, Becky could do anything not to miss a Sunday service in her church. On many occasions, Becky trekked to church. She even attended vigil services on a regular basis.

“Her son, Johnny, once tried to help her. He organised for her to be taken to a big church in Lagos. All was well for a while. But she later relapsed. Again, the mother once came to take her away from our area. We learnt they took her for deliverance. But trust Becky to trace her way back to our former location at the Kuramo Beach. Often times, Becky will be naked without even realising it. There were also many types of Becky around that area. They all were into the lifestyle on a fast lane.”

Becky has a soul mate in 32-year-old

Abdulraheem, who willingly truncated his educational pursuit in one of the country’s topmost Ivory Towers. “There is no big deal in taking any of these things,” he told The Nation.

“It is the society that blows it up and makes it seems as if one is committing any heinous crime. I take marijuana and paraga just like you would take a piece of Gala with a cup of tea. So, it is a matter of choice.”

When told that the substance he consumes is making him look dehydrated, Abdulraheem, who communicates in crisp Queen’s English, said: “Well, people are bound to be either slim or fat. It depends on the make-up of the individual’s body. For me, I have always been skinny. And if this is making me trimmer, that should be my cup of tea, abi.”

And on that, he drew in a long puff of the marijuana wrap in his hand as he thanked the reporter and walked away.

On the trail of street urchins

Under a shed at a spot around Iyana-Ipaja, on the outskirts of Lagos, sat a group of youngsters. There were seven boys and four girls. They were street urchins.

This reporter (under a guise to become a street urchin), with her escort, joined the team. The guide was a young chap named Teejay who is on the verge of turning a new lease of life.

The new entrant presented a reason to be free from societal harassment. It took a little effort to be shown the ‘ill hand of fellowship’. Within minutes, discussions ranged from government to mundane issues. But each line of talks was punctuated with puffs of marijuana.

“Why do you smoke this thing and for what?” was the first question from the ‘fresher’.

The question was directed at the leader of the group called Idris Aloma, a fair-complexioned man in his 30s. “You mean Igbo, I take it to clear my head of worries. Ah, this world is too much of wahala everyday and every man needs to have their brains working well.”

The reporter said: “I am sorry to be bothering you. But why I am asking is because me too, I would like to be taking it, but people say, it turns the head of those that smoke it in a wrong way and they are not able to think straight… That is why I want to know. 

And again, which one would you suggest?”

At this point, the gurus laughed. They cited examples of how it was with one or two members of the group. Then Aloma said: “I will suggest you start with cigarette first. As you see, it has not turned my head because I did not just start with marijuana. And it does not affect my health because I can’t remember the last time I was sick in my life. In fact, it helps better when you take Alabukun with paraga -a herbal concoction.”

For the two hours spent under the shed, Aloma smoked three wraps of marijuana; some of his protégés smoked two wraps each and the girls had only one wrap. Then, it was time to disperse.

Statistics show drug abuse

not reclining

Statistics from the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) show no decline in drug use. Methamphetamine and Marijuana top the list of drugs youths abuse in the country.

NDLEA Chairman Ahmadu Giade told The Nation that “no one can really explain why many people, especially the younger ones, become addicted to these substances. As of today, I can authoritatively tell you that Methamphetamine, also called ‘Met’ tops the list of the common drugs that we have in Nigeria. Yes, we have also cannabis, cocaine and heroin in the line of prevalence. But Methamphetamine remains number one.

“Before now, most common drug or narcotics in the country was marijuana, popularly called Indian hemp. But we have since graduated to hard drugs such as cocaine, heroin, amphetamine, also called Methamphetamine. And as we all know, Nigeria is not a producer of hard drugs, just like you should know that Cannabis is produced within our country. It is often hidden in foodstuff and loaded in vehicles with fake number plates for its inter-state movement to different parts of the country. Some traffickers even go as far as impersonating security personnel in their bid to expatiate their illicit business.

“Sadly however, we cannot deny the fact that we have become a transit point for hard drugs coming from different parts of the world. There is also the challenge of the high cost of some of these drugs. 

They are quite expensive. For instance, the street value of these drugs change from time-to-time. And cost is also often attached to their level of availability. Imagine a kilogramme of Methamphetamine being sold at about N16m per kilogramme. Cannabis can be purchased at about N3,500 per kilo. And I think cocaine should be at about N6m to N7m. Most of other ones should be between N7m to N8m. The next level of danger, which we all know is that in the bid to maintain the habit, users resort to stealing and even armed robbery while the female among them engage in prostitution to sustain the habit.”

Medically, addiction is described as a chronic, often relapsing brain disease that causes compulsive drug-seeking and use, despite harmful consequences to the addicted individual and to those around him or her. Experts also say that initial decision to take drugs is voluntary for most people; brain changes, however, occur over time that challenge a person’s self control and ability to resist intense impulses urging them to take more drugs.

Giade noted that it had been wrongfully assumed that drug abusers lack moral principles or willpower to stop using drugs simply by choosing to change their behaviour.

Drug addiction, he noted, “is a complex disease, and quitting takes more than mere good intentions. In fact, because drugs change the brain in ways that foster compulsive behaviours, quitting is difficult, even for those who are ready to do so. However, scientific advances have encouraged us to know how drugs work in the brain so we are assured that drug addiction can be successfully treated to help the people engaged in it lead productive lives.”

On the economic angle, estimates of the total overall costs of substance abuse across the world, including productivity and health and crime-related costs, runs into billions of naira annually. As scary as the scenario might be, they do not fully describe the breadth of destructive public health and safety implications of drug abuse and addiction, such as family disintegration, loss of employment, failure in school, domestic violence, and child abuse, among others.

Giade said: “The impact on their lives should be our collective concern. The three major consequences of drug use present in the physical, psychological and social effects. The first two involves direct damage on the health of the user while the social impact is the broader danger on the larger society. And each of these drugs have both long and short-term effects which often cause serious body damages on the addicts as well as leading to outright death in some instances.

“Presently, the biggest threat is the effect of Methamphetamine on the use. It makes the person to be fidgety because they feel that there are insects under their skin. It makes them restless to the point that they will be scratching their bodies with fierce intensity while trying to get to the biting thing under their skin. Long term abuse also cause damage to the brain cells leading to disorders such stroke or Alzheimer’s. “Methamphetamine is such a powerful stimulant that causes the body to release high doses of adrenaline thereby inducing anxiety, wakefulness or hyper-alertness and intense focus on nothing in particular. Users claim this intense focus lets them work far more efficient when in reality they look back at their work and see it as a total mess they created while on the drug.”