Drug abuse, psychological sickness feed one another, NDLEA chairman Marwa warns

The Chairman/Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brigadier-General Mohamed Buba Marwa (rtd), has mentioned drug use and psychological sickness feed one another, warning that, “if we only arrest the symptoms, we will keep missing the cause.”

Marwa made the comment Tuesday in Abuja as chairperson of the fifth version of The Conversation Conference (TCC 5.0) organised by Intersect Consortium, led by UK primarily based Consultant Psychiatrist, Dr. Vincent Udenze.

The NDLEA chairman, who additionally chaired the primary version in 2022 and the third, mentioned the convention had grown into one of many largest gatherings on psychological well being in Nigeria, including that the occasion, coming days after World Mental Health Day, was an opportunity to maneuver from consciousness to motion.

He mentioned behind many drug abuse circumstances handled on the NDLEA rehab services lies untreated ache.

He mentioned: “For too long, we treated mental health as a private burden, hidden behind shame and silence. In my work at the NDLEA, I see the cost of that silence daily. Behind many cases of drug abuse is untreated pain: depression nobody noticed, trauma nobody addressed, a young person who found a substance before finding help. Drug use and mental illness feed each other. If we only arrest the symptoms, we will keep missing the cause.”

Speaking to the convention on the theme of strategic investments, partnerships and community-led motion, Marwa mentioned psychological well-being can not thrive the place hopelessness and poverty drive folks into hurt.

He cited the company’s work in three pilot communities in Ondo state, the place households who as soon as trusted illicit cultivation had been helped to construct professional, lawful livelihoods. He mentioned the NDLEA intends to scale the mannequin nationwide and invited companions to hitch.

“Your theme speaks of strategic investments, partnerships and community-led motion. At the NDLEA, these will not be summary concepts. They are issues we’ve got finished. Mental well-being can not thrive the place hopelessness and poverty drive folks into hurt.

In three pilot communities in Ondo state, we labored with the folks themselves to construct professional livelihoods, in order that households who as soon as trusted illicit cultivation may earn a dignified, lawful earnings,” he mentioned.