Buba Marwa, the chairman of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), has announced the agency’s initiative to implement drug integrity tests for youth corps members, prospective couples, and others as a measure to combat substance abuse.
Gatekeepers News reports that Marwa, during a meeting held in Abuja with Olakunle Nafiu, the director-general of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), emphasised the importance of these tests.
He commended Nafiu on his recent appointment and acknowledged the NYSC as a vital asset to the nation that promotes unity among young Nigerians.
Marwa highlighted that the proposed mandatory drug tests for prospective corps members would facilitate early treatment for individuals who test positive, thereby preventing the escalation of substance dependence and associated health complications.
“The drug scourge has continued to devastate our kids, families, communities, everywhere. There’s nowhere you go in the country that you don’t have a drug abuse problem. One in seven Nigerians between the ages of 15 and 64 use drugs,” Marwa said.
“You have mentioned our efforts to cut off access and availability of these drugs, but beyond that, we have to work with all stakeholders, including NYSC, to ensure a drastic reduction in the demand for drugs by our youths, and one of our strategies to address this is through our drug integrity test, which we’re advocating that NYSC should embrace for corps members.
“As I said, while we do the drug supply reduction, we also do drug demand reduction through preventive measures, as well as counseling and rehabilitation. Now, these are important areas for further collaboration.
“You have introduced in the camps the war against drug abuse clubs, which is fantastic.
“One other important area of collaboration is the question of drug integrity tests for youth corps members. It’s a major drug demand reduction effort.
“The same way we said, if you are getting married, both the bride and the groom should bring a drug-free certificate.
“This is because it is always better to detect drug use early before it gets to addiction, which eventually could get to psychiatric problems, and it becomes a danger to the user and the society.”
Marwa said another area of collaboration is the posting of a sizeable number of corps members who studied guidance and counselling, psychology, nursing, and psychiatry to the NDLEA counselling and treatment centres across the country as their place of primary assignment during the one-year national service.
This, he said, would enable the corps members to acquire knowledge and experience in rehabilitation and psychosocial services.
The NYSC DG described the drug integrity test as a fantastic idea while he promised to study the NDLEA proposal for a possible collaboration.
He assured that the scheme would develop a general guideline for posting as many corps members as possible with the required qualifications to NDLEA commands with counselling and treatment centres across the country.
While appreciating Marwa for the giant strides NDLEA has recorded under his leadership, the NYSC DG noted the existing partnership between the agency and the organisation.
He added that his visit was to seek further means to deepen and strengthen the collaboration between the two agencies.
