By ONYEDIKA AGBEDO
The unbridled intake of illicit substances without considering the long term effects on their lives has become the pastime for many Nigerian youths. In this report, ONYEDIKA AGBEDO writes on the consequences of indulging in such substances, the way out for those already hooked into them and how to avoid leading a life of drug addiction.
Isimmiri (not his real name) visited a provisions shop where he is a regular customer in Ilasamaja, a suburb in Lagos State. He sat down, put his hand in his pocket and brought out a cigarette-like stick. He lit it, drew a puff of the substance twice and immediately became abnormal. He stood up slowly, tried to walk but could not steady his gait.
From staggering, he started showing signs of serious dizziness. The owner of the shop had to intervene by helping him to sit down. As he sat down, he could not talk; he just stared at him without blinking his eyes for about 20 minutes. He later demanded a yoghurt drink and after taking it, started behaving like someone who had a seizure. The seizure-like condition subsided moments later and he slept off.
He became much better when he woke up but he looked very tired. However, after some minutes, he started his motorcycle and left without a word. When his friends turned up at the shop and the owner of the shop relayed the episode to them, they disclosed that he must have smoked ‘Colos’, the street name for an illicit substance, Colorado.
In another incident, a young man at Tejuosho International Market, Yaba, Lagos (names withheld), who smokes ‘Colos’ drew more puffs of the substance than he could withstand and lost his senses almost instantly. His friend, who identified himself simply as Diego, told The Guardian that the effect of the drug forced him to start picking stray cellophane bags and other debris on the rail track close to the market. Diego explained that he had a bigger cellophane bag in his left hand into which he dropped the debris he picked. The boy in question was selling clothes in the market before the unfortunate incident.
However, from Diego’s account, he was yet to be rehabilitated and his business pummeled as none of his relatives had shown up as at the time of speaking with The Guardian.
‘Colos’ is just one of the illicit substances that are today destroying the future of many Nigerian youths that indulge in them. Investigations by The Guardian showed that other illicit substances like Canadian Loud, Black Mamba, Green Snake, Arizona (AZ), Molly and Skunk have found their ways into the country and many misguided youths indulge in them without considering the consequences. In some markets, motor parks and relaxation spots, people smoke these substances openly without fear of arrest by law enforcement agents.
At a popular auto spare parts market in Lagos recently, The Guardian witnessed a scene where a man who went to repair his car but smoked Green Snake while waiting for the job to be completed lost his senses and almost put himself to harm. The middle-aged man bought Green Snake, lit it and drew one puff. He offered his friends but none of them accepted to take it because, according to them, they know the effect. So, the man decided that his N1000 would not be wasted like that and drew the second puff and started quivering. After a while, he started to run towards the road but was held down by able bodied men in the market as his muscles were too tense. He was in that state for many hours before the effect of the drug cleared from his body.
It was learnt that the regular occurrence of such incidents has forced the market leaders to outlaw the sale or use of the substance within the market.
A young man smoking an illicit substance. PHOTO: GETTY IMAGES/STOCKPHOTO
When The Guardian secretly interacted with some youths who patronise these substances on their reasons for indulging in them without letting them know that their views would be published, they gave diverse answers.
“I just take it to feel good and forget my worries. I no fit die for person,” one of them said.
Another one, who is an electrician, said: “When I take it, I reason better. If I want to work for a long time, I will take it and work for hours without being tired. I will neither feel hungry nor even feel that I am working. So, I use it regularly and it doesn’t disturb me.”
Another user of the substances also said: “If I don’t take it, I won’t sleep well at night no matter what I do.”
Then another said: “I take Colos. It helps me to eat well; if I don’t take it, I don’t have an appetite for food.”
“I don’t defecate very well if I don’t take it,” another addict also said.
Asked how they source the drugs, many of the users said the vendors usually move around. “They have it in their pockets; you can’t just go to any shop and get them. The sellers know their customers as well; so even if I tell you whom I buy from, if you go to him, he won’t sell to you because he doesn’t know you. The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) is after them so they only sell to confirmed customers. If you wan buy, I fit help you,” one of them said.
Giving insight into the composition of the substances, a biologist and the author of Standard Practical Biology for Senior Secondary Schools, Mr. Ejiofor Eze, stated that most of them have their origin in Cannabis.
He said: “Cannabis is a botanical name for the plant and there are three varieties of cannabis. There is Cannabis Sativa, Cannabis Indica and Cannabis Ruderalis. All these illicit substances you mentioned like Canadian Loud, Colos, Black Mamba, Green Snake, AZ and SK (Skunk Cannabis) originate from the plant. Why I mentioned the varieties of cannabis is because they crossbreed these three varieties as they don’t contain the same active ingredients. Now the active ingredient known as Tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) is more in Cannabis Sativa; that is the substance that has that psycho active effect when you either add it to your food or smoke it.
So, Cannabis Sativa has the highest percentage of THC. Therefore, scientists that are working on these varieties are crossbreeding them to get a specific effect. That is how they came up with Black Mamba, Skunk and the likes. Skunk is a crossbreed between Cannabis Indica and Cannabis Sativa. The leaves of the plant where they get Black Mamba are somehow dark purple. It produces purple flowers. The parts of the plant they use are the leaves, the fruits and the stem, especially from the female plant. The male only produces pollen grains and actually doesn’t contain the psychoactive ingredient in a high level. So, they actually get it from the female plant.
“So, these illicit substances that our youths are indulging in actually come from cannabis. The difference is in the plants the producers crossbred to get a particular drug.”
The biologist explained that the psychoactive effect of the substances on the individual is on a short term basis.
“It lasts for minutes but the problem is that there are other substances that are added to some of them to produce maybe a better effect. For instance, there is an opioid drug called Fentanyl; they add it to this plant material so as to extend the effect on the individual,” he added.
Eze further explained that the effects of the substances are different, noting that the effect of ‘Colos’ is not as intense as that of Green Snake.
“Green Snake as of today is the strongest of these illicit substances because of the level of THC it has, which is the active ingredient in it. So, it is the percentage of the THC that will determine how hard the drug will be. So, Green Snake is the hardest amongst them all; you can’t draw the puff twice no matter how strong you are. But you can puff ‘Colos’ twice if you are strong,” he explained.
Eze warned that the substances might have long term effects on their users, saying: “It definitely has effects on those who take them; but they don’t foresee any long term effects. However, we all know that the brain cells are at the receiving end. These drugs impact on the brain cells and after some time will compromise their physiological functions. Some might have memory loss as they grow older. The brain cells might not be able to handle some tasks with speed. So, the capacity of the brain cells to deliver will be compromised because you have been stretching it; you have been disrupting their normal functions with substances. So, with time some of them will be affected and brain cells are not replaceable; once damaged they are damaged.
“The quantity the individual takes also matters. If you take more than your brain can handle, the effect will be there. The person might lose control for days if he/she couldn’t get help. Some might develop into full madness. So, if taking an overdose of these illicit substances could have such an effect, what makes those that indulge in them think that regular prolonged intake of the substances would have effects in the long run. Definitely it must have.”
When The Guardian contacted the NDLEA to ascertain if it was aware of the extent Nigerian youths were reveling in these destructive substances, its Director of Media and Advocacy, Mr. Femi Babafemi, affirmed that the agency was not just aware, but has also been doing everything possible to raise public awareness about them.
He said: “We are definitely not just aware; we have been doing everything possible to raise public awareness about this by involving every societal unit critical to the eradication of the abuse of these illicit substances. On the one hand, because we already know what these things are, all our operational formations and commands everywhere have the mandate in the area of our drug control efforts to seize them, confiscate them anywhere they find them and arrest anyone linked to the trafficking, production or sale of these substances. That’s why you would have seen in our operational data that within a period of 30 months, we have made over 32,922 arrests with regard to persons involved in illicit drug trafficking.”
According to Babafemi, who spoke in a telephone interview, the agency has, in its efforts towards curbing the demand for illicit substances in the country, put in place a mechanism called War Against Drug Abuse (WADA) Advocacy Initiative to mobilise every unit of the society to connect and build a network against the scourge. He noted that this network comprises the family unit, schools, worship places and traditional institutions.
“These are the units we have had to connect to build a network against this scourge, meaning that starting from the home; parents will have to be intentional about parenting. This is because when you look at the predisposing factors that push some of these young people into substance abuse, there are quite a lot of them that are home based. Some are social, some are community based; some have economic dimension,” he said.
Babafemi, who took time to explain some of the predisposing factors that lure the youth into the use of illicit substances, said: “A situation where you have even parents abusing illicit substances on their own, there is the possibility that their children would also abuse these substances. That is why we identified lack of intentional parenting or weak parenting as a factor responsible for this scourge among our youths.
“Again, you also have the issue of peer pressure. Quite a number of them may come from good homes but when they mix with the bad eggs out there in the community, schools and worship places, before you know it they become psychologically isolated and in no time they cringe under the pressure from their peers to want to belong.
“The social media is also playing a very key role in the sense that quite a number of these young people spend almost all their time on the social media where they see things that had been copied from other jurisdictions, where the drug subculture has been entrenched already and so they are at will to glamourise the use or the abuse of these illicit substances. So, when our young people see what their peers or role models do online, they tend to copy because, for them, it looks cool; it looks like the norm whereas that is not the case.
“Then apart from social media, you also have the role of influencers, celebrities and role models. These we find in the fashion world, entertainment and music industry where a number of these supposed influencers and celebrities also do things that are not too edifying and post them on social media. When you look up to somebody as your role model, there is a tendency for you to do what that person does. So, you have some of our young people copying what these people are doing.
“Now coming to the socio-economic factors where you have young adults that have no jobs or have nothing meaningful to do, or people that are facing a lot of socio-economic hardship, for them going into some of these illicit substances gives them some momentary relief from their pain, anguish, sorrow and challenges. So, that temptation is there for them. But in all you discover that none of these lead to anything meaningful or gainful for them.”
The NDLEA spokesman also warned the users of the illicit substances against their long term effects. He noted: “Colos, in particular, is just a street or gang name for Colorado, which is the full name of the substance. Colorado is a variant of cannabis, but unfortunately it is not the kind of cannabis we grow here. What they have in their hands that they don’t even know about is synthetic; it has gone through chemical production meaning that they are not natural. They have been processed with chemicals; quite a lot of things have gone into the production of some of these things. Now, when you talk of chemicals, as an adult, the first thing that comes to your mind is damages and destruction. If you swallow chemical you know what it does to your body.
“So, naturally, when they take some of these things whether it is Colos, Molly, Arizona or even the opioids, they have damaging consequences especially on their organs because they are not meant for what they are using them for. They are not controlled; they are not managed. So, you see some young people in their 20s and their organs would pack up. Some develop a lot of medical issues. You may just hear that somebody that had been bubbling out there has passed on.
They may give it all manner of names but at the end of the day, if you get to the bottom of it, some of the guys as a result of the reckless consumption of these substances have developed organ problems and a lot of medical issues. Those that are not dead yet have to contend with some of these issues for as long as God gives them the permission to live. This means that they are no longer enjoying their lives as normal human beings. That is one.
“Two, when you lose members of the young population of any society, community or country, these are people within the productive age bracket, who should be contributing to the growth of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of that country. When they are taken down either as a result of incapacitation or inability to provide for their families and themselves, they have denied themselves the economic benefits of production; they have denied their families of earnings that should be spent on their upkeep; they have denied the country of their contribution to the GDP. That’s another key consequence of addiction to illicit substances.
“Again, when these people are down, whether in sickness or death, they are not the only ones suffering it. That is why we keep shouting that when you see your children or relatives doing these things and close your eyes, when the bubble bursts, when the jungle matures, they are not the only ones that will face the consequences but all the people around them. This is because emotionally, psychologically, you are down with the person. If you are not contributing money to take care of the person’s medical bill, you will be contributing money for the person to even eat. So, all of these affect everyone around such individual.
“Beyond these, this scourge also has another consequence on law and order. It has been established that there is a nexus between drug abuse and the spate of security challenges we have across the country. For anybody who is not in charge of his thought processes; for anybody who is under the influence of mind-altering substances, that means he has the tendency to do things that are not rational and the tendency to go into crime, especially when they are in desperate need of money to buy these illicit substances.”
He gave assurance that the agency would not rest on its oars to block the sources of the illicit substances as well as bring people linked to them to book.
His words: “As I woke up this morning, some of the operational reports coming to my file are about the arrest of the dealers in some of these drugs and the confiscation of the illicit substances. So, we know substantially where these things are coming from. That is why we are able to gather sufficient intelligence to intercept them whenever they are coming in from any part of the world. Even those that are grown locally like Cannabis Sativa, we also go into the forest across the states destroying hectares of cannabis farms. It’s something we do every time.
“As I said earlier, in the last 30 months, we have had over 32,922 arrests. I can also tell you that within this same period, we have seized over 6,285,953.7kg of assorted illicit drugs; meaning that we have been able to identify where these things are coming from. That’s why we were able to seize this volume. Just imagine what this volume of illicit drugs would have done to the lives of our young people if a fraction of that had escaped into our communities, towns and cities. So, the fact that we were able to seize this volume means that we definitely have our eyes and ears to the ground on this matter.”
He advised those already addicted to the substances to go for treatment, noting that they need help.
“Some of them may not admit that they need the help but indeed they need help. The NDLEA has a toll free help line. We have a call centre that operates 24/7 where we have experts in counselling, psychotherapy, psychology, psychiatry and other mental health areas. We have experts that work 24/7 there. You can call our help line 08100203040 and the person will be attended to. If they need to send the person to any rehab centre, they will be well guided and directed to the closest rehab centre where they can get treatment.
“For those that are not yet abusing illicit substances, that are still contemplating or considering it, it is a no, no because when you get hooked on it, it is not as easy as just going to bed and waking up the following morning, even though that’s not easy on its own. I mean you can only know when you go in, you don’t know if you will ever come out of it alive. So, we do advise people that prevention is better than cure. For the young people out there, abstinence is the best bet. Don’t just do it; don’t go into it; the consequences far outweigh the momentary pleasure or recreational pleasure they may think they derive from it,” he noted.
