Kano Women and Youths Consume 3Million Bottles of Codeine Syrups Daily-Senate
Kano Women and Youths Consume 3Million Bottles of Codeine Syrups Daily-Senate. The Nigeria’s Senate’s has raised alarm regarding the abused of Codeine syrups in Kano State.
The matter was raised on the floor of the Nigeria’s Senate on Tuesday by Senator Baba Kaka Bashir Garbai (APC,Borno), who moved a motion along with other 37 senators asking the Senate to check the increasing used of Pharmaceutical drugs among youths and women in the country.
Senator Jibrin Barau, of APC Kano, who seconded the motion, revealed that according to research, most residents of Kano and Jigawa states consume up to 3 to 8 bottles of codeine syrups per day.
Senator Jibrin said;
“The increasing abuse of cough and prescriptive drugs, among the youth and women across the 19 northern states has resulted in meaningless deaths, rendered them largely unproductive and has devastated many upper and middle class families in the region.
“There are several reports about young girls in tertiary institutions, who have taken to an alarming abuse of the codeine cough syrup, which is often taken, mixed with soft drink. This problem is destroying even mothers in homes, as they use same codeine and other drugs as an escape from their abusive relationships and invariably get hooked on them.”
He added that;
“The pharmaceutical drug abuse is threatening a generation of northern Nigerian women including, young girls in tertiary institutions, working class ladies, married women, unemployed women, displaced women from the Boko Haram insurgency.”
On this note, the Nigeria’s Senate has mandated it’s Joint Committee on Drugs and Narcotics and Health to come up with a legislative intervention that can be used to tackle the excessive use of drugs in the country.
The Senate also implore the Federal Government to join hands with the State Government, Local Government, Traditional Rulers, NGOs and Pharmaceutical Council of Nigeria, to put up a structure that could be used in combating the abused of drugs in the country.
The Senate also encourage the Federal government to put up a rehabilitation centres for those involved in the abuse of drugs.
In addition to this motion, the Senate President Bukola Saraki also instructed that the PCN and NDLEA acts should be amended to support the motion.
