The Police Command in Lagos State on Thursday, said that the prevalence of substance abuse had made the work of policing more difficult, lamenting that the music industry glamorised drug use.

The State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Benjamin Hundeyin, made this known at the 2023 Press Week Lecture/Symposium, organised by the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), in partnership with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Lagos Chapel.

While urging the elderly Nigerians to join in the fight against substance abuse, Hundeyin said that, many superstars are involved in the menace.

According to him, when faced with health challenges, many musicians would avoid going to the hospital but rather invite a nurse to treat them at home because of drug abuse.

He said, “Going to the hospital will expose that and they don’t want people to know. The music industry is not helping us in any way. They glamorize drugs. Not all that glitters is gold.”

Hundeyin noted that substance abuse, or drug addiction among youths, is the reason for increased crime in society.

He said the command regularly arrests criminals in the state and in 90 per cent of the cases, the criminals blame their actions on drugs.

“Drugs and their attendant problems are things that manifest in the society. We all know that there is a direct connection between drugs and crimes.

“For us in the Lagos State Police Command, we have come to realise that the more there is drug use in the society, the higher the crime rate is.

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“If drugs actually reduce in the society, crimes too will reduce. Ordinarily, people would not go and commit crimes until they use drugs,” he said.

According to him, when musicians have health challenges, most times they will not want to go to the hospital but rather invite a nurse to treat them at home because they are using drugs. “Going to the hospital will expose that and they don’t want people to know.”

He said: “It is painful when elderly parents come to beg for their children arrested for drugs.

“Encouraging drug use will not help anyone. Elderly ones should be our mouthpiece. It is bad that elderly people are making this problem worse. We need to expose this.

“Our borders are quite porous, people bring in things, illicit drugs inclusive. The more we make noise about it the better,” he added.

He urged the students and young Nigerians not to bow or succumb to peer pressure. You should know what is good and what is bad.

He added: “Always stand right even if it means standing alone, in the long run, you will be better for it. Drugs are not helping in our society.

“It has made the job of policing more difficult because more and more youths are going into drugs which translates into cultism, murder, and rape and many of them end up in prison. Our young ones should stay away.

“Drugs affect crimes, so to help us reduce crimes in society, we must collectively do all we can to ensure that drug use comes down and we should not glamorise it.”

 

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