The United Nations has urged Nigeria not to criminalise the use of marijuana also known as cannabis, which the UN approved as drug for medical purposes.
The Project Officer of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Nigeria, Harsheth Kaur Virk, on Monday, March 26, said marijuana is a miracle drug allowed for medical reasons by the global body, adding that it is not for recreational purposes.
Virk stated this in her presentation at a one day Public hearing on the need to check rising menace of Pharmaceutical drugs abuse among youth in Nigeria organised by the Senate Committee on Drugs, Narcotics and Health.
She said, “Nigeria as a sovereign Nation has its stringent laws against it but international conventions of the UN have approved it for medical purposes based on outcome of researches conducted to that effect by globally recognized institutes.”
The UN also recommends that aside marijuana, recreational users of other addictive drugs should not be criminalised, but rehabilitated, Virk noted.
“The Drugs and Crime office of the UN sees addictive drugs users as people who are sick, in need of treatment, care and rehabilitation”, she added.
Marijuana is one of the most widely used illegal drugs in Nigeria.
According to a study of secondary schools in Northern Nigeria, substance abuse ranged between 1.1 ‑ 3.5% with a male to female ratio of substance abuse of 3:1.
3% smoked cigarettes, benzodiazepines abused by 3.5% and solvents by 1.5%. Abuse of cocaine and heroin was 1.1% and 1.3% respectively.
Another study carried out in about fourteen psychiatric hospitals in Lagos indicated that cannabis abusers are responsible for 13.8% of the total drug-related admissions for 1992.
Source:http://www.pulse.ng/news/local/un-urges-nigeria-not-to-criminalise-usage-of-marijuana-id8171116.html
