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.