Why drug abuse is prevalent among women

Consumption of cough syrups such as Benylin, Emzolyn, Asad cough expectorants and anti-catarrh syrups is now very common especially among women, men and even married women.  A chemist owner who craved for anonymity told Daily Trust that cough syrups are highly consumed among young women, men and especially students of higher institutions of learning.  “What […]

Consumption of cough syrups such as Benylin, Emzolyn, Asad cough expectorants and anti-catarrh syrups is now very common especially among women, men and even married women.
 A chemist owner who craved for anonymity told Daily Trust that cough syrups are highly consumed among young women, men and especially students of higher institutions of learning.
 “What they do if they want to buy the syrups is that they will send a little boy to us, this is because they are shy and don’t want people to associate them with such repugnant behaviours.
 “But some come themselves and buy whatever they want. Do you know that the price of these cough syrups has astronomically risen because of excessive demand for them among the youth? There was one syrup that was being sold for N160 sometime back, but now sells at N900 per bottle,” he said.
 Another pharmaceutical store owner who also pleaded for anonymity said married women send children from their matrimonial homes to buy such syrups for them and their husbands were mostly unaware of what they are doing.
 “Remember, these syrups have genuine medical use but are being abused by the consumers. Many of these young women have been coming here and most of them on hourly basis, the moment they step in, they do not need to tell us what they need, we just give them what they want.
 “There was a time one of them came here looking drowsy and she was staggering. I had to quickly allow her to go so that other customers will not be embarrassed by her misbehavior,” he said.
 With regards to how they consume the drug, a resident, Sani Abubakar, said, “When you see young men holding a bottle of soft drink, especially for a long time, there is hardly any doubt that the soft drink is mixed with cough syrup.
 “What they normally do is that they will buy the syrup and then pour it into the soft drink so that the public will be hoodwinked into believing that they were drinking Maltina, Fanta or any other soft drink,” he said.
 Another resident, Kabir Abdullahi, attributed the menace of drug abuse to the failure of parents to inculcate good moral values in their children.
 “The most dangerous part of it is that married women who are supposed to train and bring up children properly are the ones abusing drugs. Let me tell you one pathetic story. Something happened in our neighbourhood. A woman was abusing these cough syrups and her husband was unaware of what she was doing.
 “Sometimes her friends, I mean her partners in crime, would come to her matrimonial home to pay her a visit. Some would be carrying bottles of soft drink contaminated with cough syrups.
 “As the visitors stepped into her parlour the woman opened her fridge and kept her cough syrup in a mineral drink bottle.
“Unknown to them, however her six-year-old child opened the fridge and drank all the content of the bottle thinking that it was soft drink kept for him by his mother.
“The boy immediately became very drowsy and fell into a deep sleep. In fact, the boy slept for two days nonstop until he was taken to hospital. When her husband arrived she tried hard to hide what actually caused the problem knowing fully the consequences.
 “With this I’m calling on men to be vigilant with the kind of friends their wives associate with,” Abdullahi advised.
 When accosted a young cough syrup abuser, Sani Kabir, said he was lured into the act by friends in secondary school. He said he had never taken any narcotics until a friend influenced him and dragged him into the act.
“I was in SS1 then and my parents didn’t know what I was doing until I got to SS3 and even then, it was my junior sister who saw the empty bottles of cough syrups in my room and told my father that I was into drug abuse. Though my father tried hard to stop me, he even threatened to disown me, but I couldn’t stop, because I had become very addicted to it; then I preferred a bottle of the syrup than a plate of food,” he said.
 One Ibrahim Lawali, political party member popularly known as “True Way” in the state, told Daily Trust that they were sometimes mobilized and provided with the narcotics by politicians especially during campaigns.
 “During political rallies money is made available for thugs to buy narcotics and this gives them the courage and the gut to confront any one from the opposition camp. When you take syrups you feel elated and more willing to do the bidding of your boss,” he said.
 A woman who pleaded for anonymity said most young girls who take narcotics in school do so out of ignorance. Some of them think taking bottles of syrup would make their voice attractive to men by making it melodious.
 “I know of my roommate in school who would spend most of the day dozing in the hostel whenever she drank syrup. She would miss going to classes for lectures. She would be totally overwhelmed by deep sleep. Sometimes if we asked her why she was indulging in such despicable act she would say taking such things would make her immune from the harsh realities of life.
 “This had very serious academic implication for her. She was withdrawn from the institution at last.
“What is worrisome about this behaviour is that a girl that went to school to acquire education that would mould and shape her behaviour and conduct for the betterment of her family and larger society will resort to narcotics taking. Where is the morality here?” she lamented.
 Reacting to the ugly development, the Head of Clinical Services of the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) Gusau, Dr Kabir Sada, said too much consumption of cough syrup is detrimental to health.
 “Cough syrups normally contain codeine and when it is abused it will affect one’s health by causing drowsiness and this results in deep sleep. The taker can even go mad. Codeine cures cough when moderately taken but when excessively consumed it makes the affected person abnormally happy and sleepy.
“That is why we are calling on medical store keepers to always ask for genuine medical prescription, duly signed and endorsed by a trained doctor, before they sell out these items to these young persons,” he said.