Nigeria appears to have woken up from deep slumber over substance abuse among the youth population of the country. The first indication of this was during a visit to Kano recently when President Muhammadu Buhari publicly instructed law enforcement agents to hound down drug traffickers in the country and bring them to justice. And then the two-day Stakeholders’ meeting in Kano called by the office of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, to discuss substance abuse in the country. The meeting ended on December 20.

It is quite instructive that the setting of this awakening is the ancient city of Kano where drug/substance abuse has long become an epidemic. Yearly reports of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) always put Kano on top of cities with the highest substance abuse prevalence.

In 2015 out of a total number of 8, 826 suspected drug offenders arrested , 2,205 came from Kano alone-the highest in the country.  In October during a motion sponsored by Baba Garba in the Nigerian Senate, it was revealed that over three million codeine containing cough syrups are consumed daily in Kano and Jigawa States! And this in addition to other substances commonly abuse among youth in those states and others.

Thirty seven  senators supported that motion and the senate resolved to enact legislations that would check substance abuse among youth in the country. The Senate also mandated the Ministry of Health to provide rehabilitation centres or clinics where victims of drug abuse would be rehabilitated where necessary, and urged the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, to embark on a vigorous sensitisation campaign on the dangers of drug abuse and steps in achieving a successful rehabilitation for people with the addiction. The just concluded stakeholders meeting in kano was a fallout of that senate resolve.

But before the senate begins the more tedious process of legislating to check substance abuse and addiction, it is pertinent to call its attention to how other lands are dealing with the problem.

I was one of ten Nigerians who recently participated in a special edition of the US Government sponsored International Visitors Leadership Programme on Substance Abuse Prevention and Rehabilitation. We visited major cities across the US which significant substance abuse challenges and interacted with law enforcement agents, health workers, government officials, teachers, non-profit organisations, prison officials and youth serving jail terms on drug-related crimes.

It was a trip that opened our eyes to the dangers of substance abuse and the best practices to contain and check it.

The US had long treated drug and substance abuse as a crime and offenders routinely sent to jail. But the same people come back to jail shortly after completing a jail term. They go back to drugs and commit crimes to finance their addiction. In a society where access to guns is easy, addiction often leads to violent crimes and murders.

But since law enforcement has failed to stop drug and substance addiction and related crimes, the US has had a rethinking about strategies to check the menace.

The first step is a realisation that drug addiction is a mental health challenge and those suffering from it need assistance and not jail sentences. Addiction is like any other disease and sufferers require help to get out of it into recovery.

Law enforcement in the US has moved from targeting drug users to hunting down illicit drug traffickers and cutting off supply routes. Law enforcement agents in the US now send youths suffering from drug addiction disorder to rehabilitation homes instead of sending them to jail. Only those who commit violent crimes, including murder are sent to jail. But even while in jail, they are made to undergo rigorous rehabilitation programmes to ensure they get clean before leaving jail.

But by far the biggest take away from the trip is the synergy between governments – federal, state and counties, and Non-Governmental Organisations in tackling the problem. There are no government-run rehabilitation homes or treatment clinics for those with substance abuse disorder. The governments and their agencies are not directly involved in drug abuse campaigns, treatment and rehabilitation of victims. Instead, there is an unwritten agreement that the NGOs are better suited to deliver these services, and the reasons are obvious.

NGOs work directly with the people and are more trusted than government agencies, especially on an issue as sensitive as drug addiction. They are also more specialised in the services they deliver, and have more standardised recruitment process. Moreover, because they operate with donor funds, they are much more transparent and accountable than government agencies.

So what the federal, state and county administrations do is to appropriate funds yearly for drug/substance abuse prevention, treatment and rehabilitation and channels these funds to credible NGOs already working in these areas. Thus, not only are the services more professionally delivered, but it ensures more value for money. And this model is already yielding positive results for the US as drug related crimes are going down and more people are getting access to addiction rehabilitation centres.

The lesson for Nigeria is for the government to move beyond issuing public statements lamenting prevalence of substance abuse among youth, to evolving policies directed at supporting local NGOs already doing great work in these areas. Instead of saddling the NDLEA with drug abuse campaign and rehabilitation, the agency should be adequately funded to fight the criminals who traffic these illicit drugs that is killing our youth.

Government funding for drug abuse campaign, treatment and rehabilitation should be targeted at supporting NGOs in the country who are already using their own resources to intervene in this problem. There are many NGOs working in the area of drug abuse, prevention and rehabilitation in different states and communities across the country. Government needs to set up machinery to identify NGOs with appropriate structure to support with funding and give targets on deliverables.

In Abuja, Kaduna and Kano alone, there are not less than 10 of such organisations doing incredible work with their own resources. They include Drugs Danger Smart Advocacy Foundation, Life Challenge Intervention Outreach, Community Intervention Network on Drugs, Parents against Drug Abuse, Substance Abuse & Addiction Recovery Centre and Milestone Rehabilitation Foundation, among others.

Tajudeen Suleiman is a journalist with the International Centre for Investigative Reporting (ICIR)