Before delving into my experience with drug abuse, I would like to blow your mind with some statistics about drug abuse in Nigeria and across the world;
- Alcohol leads to 3.3m deaths yearly.
- Over 15.3m people are suffering from drug use disorders.
- 40% of Nigerian youths engage in drug abuse.
- Northern states in Nigerian consume 3m bottles of codeine daily.
I decided to start with these scary facts so you know that Nigerian youths and everyone around the world have a real problem with drugs.
My Experience
My elder brother Jide was a student of law at University of Ilorin and to say he was intelligent was an understatement, the right word was “genius”, such that we nicknamed him Albert Eistein. Jide’s biggest dream was to become the Chief Judge of Nigeria (CJN) because he possessed the brain, zeal, intelligence, drive and potentials.
When Jide was in 300level, being 1 of the top 5 best students in the school, he observed he was sleeping a lot and was gradually affecting his grades. My brother became introduced to CODEINE by some friends after complaining to them. At first, Jide approached CODEINE with the aim of helping him be able to read better and not sleeping a lot.
Fast forward to 600level, Jide was already an addict without knowing. He was still giving the excuse of using it to read but the family knew he was lying as Jide was looking haggard, drastically dropping in academics, running out of money and above all, a sex addict. My parents took him to a 3 months rehab centre so he could return to school but it had little or no effect on him.
After his final exams, Jide failed to make it to law school which threw him into depression and with that, he became a shadow of himself and went all in for CODEINE which he saw as means of helping him manage the situation, not knowing it was worsening it. He was so addicted that if he couldn’t afford it in a day, he would go to the street to beg just to buy it.
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This unfortunate event happened between 2007 -2014 and as I write this, Jide is at a rehab centre in Yaba after the CODEINE affected his mental state. Imagine a onetime Chief Justice of Nigeria hopeful running mad? Well, no thanks to hard drugs.
Conclusion
If the scary but true facts that I presented do not make you shiver, im sure the story of my poor brother will make you think twice.
If you have never done hard drugs, please don’t ever do it. If you are contemplating on doing it, please erase it from your mind. For any addict reading this, please talk to loved ones immediately and let them take you to a rehab centre.
I love everyone and hard drugs have caused enough deaths already.
References
drug-abuse-3m-bottles-codeine-consumed-daily-north-senate/
index.php/2016/05/20/40-of-nigerian-youths-engage-in-substance-abuse/
Word count - 350 words
sorry to hear about your brother bro.. i hope he's okay now! thanks for sharing your story with us!