Reports have recently ranked Nigeria as 5th in the world with the highest suicide rate of an average of six suicides per month. Substance use has been attributed as a major factor which leads people to commit suicide.
Also, the increase in cases of sudden deaths (such as suicide) among Nigeria’s youths in the country is reportedly connected to opioid overdose, which is the most common drug injected by youths.
Going by the recent trend, and if nothing is urgently done, Nigeria stands the risk of losing more than 100 youths daily to opioid overdose. This is because Nigeria’s population is said to be about 3% of the world population but 6% of the world population of cannabis users.
Again, report has also revealed that 14% of the world population who misuse pharmaceutical opioids are reportedly in Nigeria, thereby making Nigeria one of the countries in the world with the highest population of people who misuse tramadol and codeine cough syrup.
From the foregoing, substance abuse may become one of the leading causes of deaths in Nigeria.
Also worrisome is the increasing drug supply via the internet including the anonymous online marketplace known as the “dark net”.
