Senate set to introduce bill to curbs drug menace by youths

Senator Gbenga Ashafa has expressed worry over the increasing rate of drug abuse in youths especially females which he described as a national concern.

Ashafa (APC, Lagos) in an interview published on the twitter handle of the Nigerian Senate: @NGRSenate by Special Assistant to the President of the Senate on New Media.

Bamikole Omishore said he would be sponsoring a bill in the upper legislative chamber aimed at curbing the menace of drug abuse in Nigeria.

“The rate at which the youth including girls are abusing drugs is now on the increase.

“If nothing is done about it urgently, mental homes will be filled with youths seeking treatment from drug related illness.

“When I was thinking about this bill what was in my mind was the situation where our youths are just abusing drugs.

“Now what I heard is that there is a particular drug that ladies now take when they go to parties and this is supposed to be a cough suppressant. They take it in volumes and then go to parties.”

The lawmaker expressed apprehension  that after the federal government must have created jobs there might be no youths of sound minds left for employment.

He said: “Drugs is something that is affecting that group of Nigerians, if nobody is saying anything, in the next three years we would have our psychiatric homes full of young people begging for mental treatment.

“If we succeed in creating employment for our youth, what kind of youths are we creating the jobs for?

“Are we creating the jobs for sound minded individuals and young people or what? That is part of the side effects we are having with that,” he said.

He added that a former head of state saw the bill and commended it while also making some inputs which has been sent through the President of the Senate Bukola Saraki.