DRUG ABUSE: OGUN TO CURB THE MENACE

The Ogun State Government will leave no stone unturned to curb the menace of drug abuse among youths, attributing its high prevalence to sense of hopelessness.
          The State Deputy Governor, Engr. Noimot Salako-Oyedele stated this while playing host to members of the Ogun State Drug Control Committee, led by Pharmacist Olufemi Fafiolu who paid her a visit in her Office at Oke-Mosan.
          Engr. Salako-Oyedele expressed displeasure at the statistics which indicated that the State had the highest drug addicts among South Western States in the country, saying nobody can really pinpoint at the exact cause of drug abuse.
           She stated that the Governor Dapo Abiodun’s government was committed to ensure that youths in the State were positively engaged, noting that reduction in youth unemployment would go a long way in curbing the scourge in the States, as well as improve employability among the youths.
          Salako-Oyedele added that the introduction of empowerment programmes by the present administration would be very helpful to the youths, especially those that were being rehabilitated from drug abuse.
          Earlier in his presentation, Pharmacist Olufemi Fafiolu, said the estimated figure of drug addicts in the South West region of the country was nearly twice the nation’s prevalence with 2.7million, which constitutes 24 percent, stating that the prevalence in Ogun State is 17%, as the survey for the prevalence in Abeokuta South and North were carried out by the committee.
          Fafiolu said that the abuse of drug pose serious security threat to the nation’s socio-economic development as it was one
of the reasons for kidnapping, rape, armed robbery, prostitution, gangsterism, hooliganism, cultism and insurgency.