Drug, sex abuse alarming among youths – expert

What is this issue that you believe is destroying the potential of young people?We feel that it is important to talk about some pressing issues affecting our families that we are refusing to talk about, and in fact becoming a cancer. Specifically I am talking about drug abuse and sexual abuse among young people.From my […]

What is this issue that you believe is destroying the potential of young people?
We feel that it is important to talk about some pressing issues affecting our families that we are refusing to talk about, and in fact becoming a cancer. Specifically I am talking about drug abuse and sexual abuse among young people.
From my clinical experience in Nigeria I have observed that this problem is very common irrespective of individual socio-economic class or religion or sect. It is not surprising that recently I had a thirteen year old boy on admission in this facility for abusing illicit drugs.
Common drugs people abuse includes codeine, cocaine, cannabis, marijuana, rohypnol, and alcohol. From urine samples, we can pick out what drugs people have taken even when they deny usage of them.
Families should be quite vigilant as these youths come in with samples of diluted coca cola or tea in syringes for testing. They are getting craftier at hiding this behaviour.
Some of the reasons why youths tend to indulge in this behaviour is due to peer pressure which is strong. And some people start using drugs because they are trying to cope with difficulties in their lives. These are quietly and quickly becoming a trend.
How would you rate the prevalence at this moment?
Over 2,000 people pass through our books on drug related problems and the number is increasing, and ours is just one facility.
But NAFDAC has insisted that only a few pharmacies can give you codeine?
What is happening is that codeine has become a product in the black market. People readily get it behind the scene. Parents need to have an open discussion with their children. If not, someone will have that discussion for you.
If you suspect a change in pattern of behaviour in your child ask questions. If a child starts keeping strange friends, bringing home things that look suspicious, or if there is a decline in their academic work for no obvious reason, let that be an alarm bell for you. But don’t be judgmental or deny that it is not possible. It never helps.
Parents need to recognise that times have changed. Your generation and your child’s are two different generations under different influences. It is not a justification, but it is a reality. You have to appreciate where they are to be able to help.
We all have a role to play in this. We need to be more aware. For Synapse Services, we do rehab. For our NGO, Reconnect Health Development Initiative, we have a campaign, “Simply Say No to Drugs”. They are programmes in schools with drug-free clubs and the slogan becomes, “Simply Say No, I’m Cool-I don’t do drugs”. We are hoping to partner with ministries of youth and education.
Any hope for parents whose children are already on drugs? What’s the recovery rate?
If you suspect any of the above symptoms , seek help, see a clinician. One basic thing a clinician can do is a urine drug test. Once you have established there are drugs, you want to know how far this person is gone in the drug-taking habit and what help they need. Psychiatrists deal with this. If you can get beyond the stigma of thinking that you are seeing a psychiatrist which means you are psychotic, you can actually seek help and they can have a discussion with you. There are several programmes fashioned to help the child and the families overcome some of the difficulties.
Are you saying sexual abuse among young persons is on the rise?
Because I practised primarily in the UK, I thought sexual abuse was a big problem in the western world. In my little experience in Nigeria, I have become quite disheartened with what I have seen. I have seen married women break down in tears when they talk about what happened to them as children. I have seen children of broken homes, who say their homes broke because of their childhood and what happened to them when they were young. I find young people abused and listen to some of the sad tales they tell of their horrible childhood.
When you leave home, be aware of whom you have left your child with. Your brother, your house help or sibling with your kids does not always mean they are safe. These are things we don’t always think about.
When you suspect a problem, seek professional advice. There are people who can sensitively ask a child questions. You don’t get anywhere asking a child, did a man touch you? It might traumatise the child. If you don’t feel able to do it, seek professional help.
This is not about the girl child, the boy child is affected also, and are sometimes the more vulnerable ones, because parents are least suspecting of the boy child. You feel your boys are safe and can roam around. You are more aware of your girls but the number of men touching young boys is increasing.
The more aware we are, it will deter a lot of perpetrators. What are we doing about this? We are trying to put together a speak out programme,  a “Sexual Abuse Awareness and Empowerment Programme”, in schools to involve a lot of international organisations and interested parties and traditional rulers. We could also use tree planting events to signify a return to nature.
They will tell stories of young people who may have been abused. A colleague once said to me that I was trying to bring in western culture,  that Nigerians don’t like to talk about these things. I said to him the western world were where we are now, because at a time, they didn’t want to talk about it too, but people had to raise awareness because their children were suffering.
Even up till date, a lot of the calamities that were committed are still being brought to the fore. So we are going through that phase. This cancer can no longer continue. Our children need to be kept safe. We have to talk about it.
Drug abuse, sexual abuse is real. If it is not affecting someone directly related to you, it might be a [distant] family, it might be a neighbour. So watch out.