The Kwara State Commander of the Commander, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Mohammed Bashir Ibrahim, has pledged to explore sporting activities to reduce drug demand and supply among youth in the state.
Ibrahim said this on Tuesday when a group of journalists under the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Kwara State chapter paid him courtesy visit in Ilorin, the state capital.
He said the decision followed recent menaces encounter in policing drug traffickers in Kwara State.
While commenting on how illicit sunstances affect sports, the NDLEA Commander noted that youths are prone to illegal substance abuse because “youths tend to glamorize drug use.”
“Matters are not helped when adults, handlers of athletes tend to sell them the drugs.
“We recently secured conviction of a coach who was selling drugs to young athletes in his care,” he said.
Ibrahim also said that the consumption and supply of synthetic maurijuana is prevalent among drug users in the state, expressing worry over the increasing population of women in the supply chain of banned substances like synthetic cannabis.
He also lamented that the data from UNODC is not in tandem with the current drug activities, stressing that it was published in 2018.
These challenges, according to Ibrahim, make the war against drug abuse difficult.
Reacting on behalf of journalists at the NDLEA office, Ayodeji Ismail, Chairman Kwara SWAN, maintained that sports writers are aware of the adverse effects of drug abuse against sports and youth development.
“We like to retool our members to properly report these in our bits,” he said.
He also solicited the presence of the NDLEA at sports events.
“Your presence will help keep drug traffickers away from our athletes,” he said.
Kwara state, according to United Nation’s Office on Drugs and Crime, UNODC, findings has a drug trafficking prevalence of 13 per cent, highest in the whole of north central Nigeria.
