Current moves by some stakeholders to push for the legalisation of cannabis in Nigeria will rob the country of the gains so far made in the renewed war against drug abuse and trafficking in the country.
The warning came from Chairman and Chief Executive of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, Brigadier General Buba Marwa spoke in Abuja at a national security summit organised by the House of Representatives.
According to him, the present figure of ten point six million Nigerians abusing cannabis is frightening and enough to sound the alarm bell.
In his words, should we have such a law, we will soon become a nation of junkies and criminals. As such, I will like to caution that our lawmakers should not legalise cannabis because it will amount to taking a step forward and ten steps backward.
For him, it will no doubt rob the nation of recent gains in the war against illicit drugs. In less than four months, we have been able to mop up over two million kilograms of illicit drugs, with over ninety billion naira worth of illicit substances seized.
According to Marwa, if a fraction of this had found its way into our streets. We can’t be holding a national security summit and at the same time considering legalising illicit substances.
His comments comes about five months after he assumed, pledging to overhaul and expand the agency to effectively deal with the menace of drug abuse in the country.
The former Lagos administrator who headed the Presidential Advisory Committee for the Elimination of Drug Abuse said the revamping will be done in line with the recommendations of the committee.
Further addressing the summit, Brig. General Marwa said there is presently no bigger national issue than the issue of insecurity in Nigeria.
He added that the relationship between substance abuse and crime is a fact.
In his words, so beyond speculations and armchair theories, there is ample evidence, from report statistics and from empirical data from the field, to conclude that the use of illicit substances is a contributing factor to the worsening security situation in Nigeria. And if this is so, Nigeria should be the last country to consider a law to legalise marijuana in any shape or form.
He commended the organisers of the summit, saying it could not have come at a better time.
The NDLEA Chief urged Nigerians to stand up and take ownership of the fight against insecurity in the country.