President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the establishment of six rehabilitation centers across the country, out of which three have been reflected in this year’s budget.
The Chairman and Chief Executive officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency NDLEA, Brigadier General Muhammad Buba Marwa(RTD) disclosed this at the United Nations Day Against Drug abuse and Illicit Drug Trafficking held at the Presidential villa Abuja.
Muhammad Buba Marwa stated that the Agency had been involved in a series of training, including on Drug Prevention, Treatment and Care (DPTC) for the agency officers to refocus from the criminalisation of drug users to provide the full gamut of health services for them.
According to him, since the realignment, NDLEA had made good strides in the countries drug demand reduction activities.
Stressing that this year alone, they have counselled and rehabilitated 3, 523 drug users mostly through brief interventions in the agency facilities.
He pointed out that they also extended the Drug Prevention, Treatment and Care training to several NGOs to empower them with the requisite skills and knowledge to cascade the effect to communities and the grassroots.
The Chairman said given the dearth of treatment facilities in the country, it would be impossible to make the kind of gains the agency is targeting.
He revealed that this was why they proposed the establishment of model rehabilitation centres to further make treatment accessible and affordable to more people which the president approved.
Buba Marwa noted that NDLEA had observed a change in the dynamics of society’s response to illicit drug matters over the past 17 months, saying that they have seen a degree of positive response from the government and people in government, like never before.
He maintained that there has been a strong response from stakeholders in the illicit drug spectrum, as their partners have rallied more strongly than before, and Society is warming up to the idea that together we can end the drug scourge.
He hoped that the momentum would be maintained even as NDLEA adopt various measures to lend impetus to the effort.
The themed of the event was addressing Drug Challenges in Health and humanitarian crises.
BELLO WAKILI
