NDLEA Faults Legalising Cannabis
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has objected to the demands to legalise cannabis in the country.
The NDLEA Chairman, Buba Marwa, stated this in Abuja on Monday While addressing journalists.
Marwa said the nation cannot afford to mortgage the lives of the citizens for financial gains by legalising cannabis.
The Chairman who was responding to earlier calls by the governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu for the legalisation of cultivation of Cannabis Sativa in the country reacted that the call must be resisted at all cost.
Marwa said ahead of the 2021 World Drug Day, the NDLEA does not accept such a call and that the agency will continue to burn down marijuana farms and prosecute whoever is caught doing the business.
The NDLEA Chair also restated his call to have politicians subjected to drug testing before contesting for elective positions. He noted that this has become necessary to ensure that only sane persons are allowed to lead the country in whatever capacity.
He added that students and intending couples should also be subjected to drug testing.
Meanwhile, the Country Representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Oliver Stolpe revealed that at least three million Nigerians are struggling with drug-abuse-related habits.
He noted that the recent research by the UNODC has shown a steady rise in abuse of drugs and that cannabis is the most abused substance in Nigeria, adding that those within the age bracket of 25-35 years of age engaged in the use of illicit substances in Nigeria
The Governor of Ondo State Rotimi Akeredolu has constantly supported calls for legalising Cannabis Sativa in the country. He has urged the Federal Government to discard traditional perceptions and archaic sentiment attached to cannabis as a ‘devil’s plant’.
Akeredolu believes the medical and economic merits of the use of cannabis outweigh its demerits and the Nigerian government needs to give legal backing to cannabis to enable its use in the country.
