WORLD DRUG FREE DAY: TREATMENT WORKS

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The fight against drug abuse must be total....

"...collaborative efforts to successfully fight the menace of fraudsters and money launderers in Nigeria and Africa" - Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, GCFR, President Federal Republic of Nigeria.

IN his inaugural speech at the Lincoln Memorial Mall in Washington D.C.  on Monday, January 20, 1997 titled We will redeem the promise of America in the 21st Century, the former US President, Bill Clinton, said among others: "Our streets will echo again with the laughter of our children, because no one will try to shoot them or sell them drugs anymore" a maxim which adds impetus to the raison-d'entre the United Nations sets aside June 26, every year as the United Nations International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.  It is a day all nations are expected to re-affirm their faith and re-inaugurate the clarion crusade against the scourge that has continued to bedevil mankind.  The United Nations since the Single Convention of 1988 against illicit traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, always has a theme as focus and/or area of concentration each year.

For instance, last year, the theme was: Let's Talk About Drugs.  In 2002, it was Substance of Abuse and HIV/AIDS.  Year 2001 was Sports Against Drug Abuse.  In year 2000, it was Avoiding Denial and Facing Reality, also in 1999, it was Music Against Drug Abuse, while 1997 had Mobilising Communities Against Drug Abuse, as theme.

This year's theme is Treatment Works.  The choice of this theme by the United Nations may have been borne out of the pertinence of lending credence to the secondary level of Drug Abuse Prevention Strategies.  Treatment is a planned and sustained means of assisting drug-dependent persons either in the hospital or outside hospital setting with the aim of making the patient recuperate to his or her normal state of well being.

Steps involved in treatment includes, History-taking, problem identification, drug of abuse, frequency and period of drug usage, record of previous treatment, duration of treatment, referral system and goal identification.  And whereas there are two forms of treatment, ( detoxification and harm reduction ), the crux here is that it is efficacious in so far as the drug-dependent person is guided well in religiously following the tenets and cardinals of the confines of treatment juxtaposed with follow-up, counselling, thorough rehabilitation and social reintegration - Treatment Works! The various acknowledged substances of abuse are legion even as they are manifest vis-a-vis, Alcohol, Tobacco, Cannabis Species, Amphetamines, Tranquilisers and Sedatives, Mild CNS Stimulants, Inhalants, Anabolic Steroids, Heroin, LSD and Cocaine.  It becomes very imperative to note in passing here that one very peculiar feature is that all the substances of abuse as enumerated, have both physical, psychological and social effects which more often than not, lead to death or permanent disability.

Reasons for abuse

A number of reasons are adduced for the use of psychoactive drugs by youths.  These include among others, parental drug sub-culture, peer group influence, availability of psycho-active drugs, the need to facilitate studies and excel in academics, curiosity and experimentation, emotional and psycho-social stresses such as anxiety, frustration, insomnia and economic depression, get rich quick syndrome and the influence of advertisement.

Drug abuse and trafficking have left a bad image for this country abroad, leads our youths into various immoral behaviours like sex abuse, rape, stealing, abortion, armed robbery, prostitution, gangsterism, truancy, cultism, arson, accidents ( industrial and vehicular ).  It is the root cause of broken homes destitution, some cases of HIV/AIDS, mental illnesses and the awesome depreciation in altogether economic and human resources.

It is an indisputable fact, going by the postulations of pundits, that crime and drug abuse cannot easily be divorced from each, because it is upheld that about 90 per cent of crimes committed, are perpetrated under the intoxication of one substance of abuse or the other and one cannot agree more.

The fight against drug abuse must be total and all hands must be on deck, alongside a total commitment to fight drug abuse, an all-embracing campaign must be carried out to all nooks and crannies of the nation, enlightening our young ones on the dangers inherent in drug abuse and for us to succeed in this campaign, we must develop a culture and attitude against misuse of drugs.  Those who indulge in this inglorious practice must be regarded as pariahs in pari-pasu with deviants from societal norms and frantic efforts should be made to bring them back into the main stream of the society.  As it is always said, prevention is better and cheaper than cure, we must therefore carry this campaign with vigour to the grassroots.

As a panacea to the foregoing, the involvement of appropriate research groups and centers in drug data collection exercise nationwide should be encouraged, the need for all the tiers of government to employ and train Guidance Counsellors for schools, should be seen as sacrosanct.