A Man taking codeine |
By the time his parents brought him to
the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba, Lagos, he had pierced his
body with blades and knives.
The 23-year-old university undergraduate
looked cool, well-dressed and spoke English fluently, but it wasn’t
long before the nurses who attended to him knew that he was mentally
deranged.
“His speech was incoherent, irrelevant
and illogical,” said one of the nurses who attended to him and who
pleaded anonymity, adding, “Speech test is one of the ways we know that
someone has gone berserk.”
James was a 300 Level Biochemistry
student in one of the private universities in the south-west until
August 2014 when his parents got a call from the school’s management
that their son was having some sort of problem and needed urgent
attention. However, they didn’t disclose what the problem was right
away.
On learning about their son’s “critical”
condition, James’ parents, resident in Lagos, sped to the school, only
to find their son behaving strangely. After some investigations, it was
discovered that James had been taking codeine (a sleep-inducing and
analgesic drug derived from morphine) for some time.
One of James’ friends, simply identified
as Femi, and who also notified the school in the first place, told our
correspondent how he found out that his friend was indulging in drugs.
He said, “It was while we were in 200
Level that I learned that James was into drugs. At first, I didn’t take
him seriously. I thought he knew what he was getting into. He said the
drug was to calm him down after reading, nothing else. But over time,
his codeine consumption increased. I warned him several times, but he
didn’t listen. He’d even ask me, ‘Or do you want to report me to the
Vice Chancellor?’ I stopped warning him.
“I started to notice his strange
behaviour around August 2014. I remember one night around 8pm when I
asked him what his plans were after graduating from the school. His
reply shocked me: ‘I want to be a commercial bus driver in Lagos.’ I
laughed as I thought he was joking. But on a second thought, I said that
didn’t sound normal.”
The following morning was when Femi decided not to keep his friend’s secret anymore.
“All through the night, I saw him
talking to himself. I asked him what was going wrong and he said he was
discussing his plans with some people. I couldn’t sleep. When the day
broke, I had to report to the school management, who thereafter took him
to the school clinic. They observed him there for a day before calling
his parents,” he said. “I always feel bad it took me too long to report
him, but I am happy I did the right thing eventually. Probably if I had
reported him when I first saw him taking codeine, he would have been
helped early.”
Femi, now working in a pharmaceutical
company in Lagos, said he’s usually unhappy whenever he remembers that
James is still in the psychiatric hospital.
“We were meant to graduate together and I believe he’ll be out of the facility soon,” he said.
James is one of the “hundreds” of
undergraduates who are in the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba,
according to an official who spoke to our correspondent on the condition
of anonymity.
The official said, “We have many
undergraduates here. They are in the hundreds, both male and female and
the pathetic thing is that most of them are teenagers while some are in
their early 20s. What brought most of them here is because they were
into drugs.
“Some took Indian hemp, while some took
cocaine, but in most cases we’ve seen, they took the former. Some also
took codeine and when you ask them why they took it, they would tell you
it was to calm them down, especially when they had read and read.
“They often used it to enhance their
sleep. Unfortunately, most parents were not aware that their children
were into drugs until their first breakdown or episode. That’s when they
bring them here.”
According to the official, most of the
victims are from public institutions, where there is little or no
monitoring of students’ activities.
The source added, “We have cases from
both public and private institutions, but there are more cases from the
former, where students are usually not monitored. There are a couple of
cases from private universities too.
“You know authorities of public
institutions don’t really care how students live their lives. But in
private institutions, the students are careful in taking these drugs
because of their strict policies. Don’t also forget that most private
institutions in the country are faith-based and they are bent on
instilling their doctrines or belief systems in the students. So,
there’s a certain level of discipline in private schools. In public
schools, there’s freedom. Students live wherever and anyhow they want to
without anybody monitoring them.
“In the case of students from private
institutions, when they break down, the management relays the
information to their parents to come and take them, who then bring them
here. In public schools, the friends of the victims alert the parents.
So, in almost every case we’ve seen, the victims’ parents brought them
here.”
How do the victims usually behave when
they are first brought to the hospital for the medical personnel to know
that they are suffering from mental derangement?
The official said, “Actually, most of
them are calm when they bring them, only a few are violent. Some come
well-dressed and even try to comport themselves, but there are ways
through which we know the victim is mentally disturbed.
“For a while, they can stay calm, but it
does not take long before they start displaying some weird behaviours.
There are also some tests carried out on them. For instance, when a
person’s speech is incoherent, irrelevant and illogical, or if they have
a wrong orientation to time, person and place, you know something is
wrong.
“You may ask, ‘What time of the day are
we now?’ If it is morning and the victim says it is night, they have a
wrong orientation to time. Or if you ask where they are and they reply
they are in the market whereas they are in the hospital, they have a
wrong perception about place. These are just some of the tests.
“Some would have pierced their bodies
because by the time they had sniffed, inhaled and injected the drugs,
they wouldn’t know what they’re doing again. We see a lot of marks or
scars on many of them. Some have abrasions and in some cases, tattoos
all over the body.
“As a psychologist, when you see tattoos
and piercings all over a student’s body, or a lady with a very weird
hairdo, it tells you something. You don’t do such things ordinarily.
There’s a 90 per cent probability that such student is involved in drugs
or alcohol. For those who have survived the illness, the major factor
they would tell you that drive them into it is peer influence.”
Away from the Federal Neuropsychiatric
Hospital, Lagos, a staff member of the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital
in Aro, Ogun State, simply identified as Mrs. Adigun, said in her 10
years of working at the hospital, she had seen hundreds of
undergraduates being admitted into the facility due to drugs.
She said, “In both the male and female
wards, they are many here. I usually pity them. They are beautiful
ladies and handsome guys who should have no reason to be here, but
because of drugs, they are here. They took cocaine and the rest and they
became insane.
“Just a few weeks ago, they brought in
another student from a private university in Osun State. She was
studying Accounting. In fact, she ought to graduate from the institution
next year, but that will no longer be possible even if she becomes
normal today and is discharged.”
Findings by our correspondent showed
that there are many undergraduates in several other psychiatric
hospitals across the country — including the Federal Neuropsychiatric
Hospitals in Benin (Edo State), Kaduna (Kaduna State), Calabar (Cross
River State) and Enugu (Enugu State) — who became patients in the
facilities as a result of taking cocaine and Indian hemp.
An official at the Psychiatric Unit of
the General Hospital, Ilorin, Kwara State, who pleaded anonymity, said
“there are a couple of victims from the University of Ilorin and Ladoke
Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Oyo State.”
Mrs. Chioma Ugochukwu, an official at
the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital in Enugu, also said the hospital
had “always” admitted student patients.
“They are here, many of them. We have
always admitted students from tertiary institutions, both from the
private and public schools, including from the Nnamdi Azikiwe
University, Awka. They are usually teenagers or in their 20s,” she
noted.
Why we took drugs —Ex-patients
Some former student patients at some of
the psychiatric hospitals in the country told our correspondent that
they resorted to taking drugs as a result of academic pressure, among
other reasons.
“I think I started taking Ritalin (one
of the most commonly known central nervous system stimulants that is
used in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and
narcolepsy, a condition characterised by an extreme tendency to fall
asleep whenever in relaxing surroundings),” said John Abayomi, a former
Law undergraduate at a private university in Ogun State.
Even though he was never diagnosed with
an attention deficit disorder, Abayomi said, “I learned how to take it
from a friend and it’s one of the bad decisions I ever made in my life. I
had to drop out of school eventually. I thought the drug was going to
help me fight pressure, but it ruined my life.
“When I started using the drugs, I could
sit down to read all through the night for like five hours and it would
be like twenty minutes. I thought I was doing myself good.”
Abayomi, who was a patient at the
Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Yaba, said he started taking the drug
because he thought he was suffering from an undiagnosed disorder and
needed a stimulant to boost his attention.
“There were many students then like me
taking the drug. We didn’t belong to any bad group, but it’s all because
we wanted to read for long,” he said. “But I thank God I’m out of the
facility. Even though I couldn’t pursue my Law degree, I’m happy to be a
singer now and public speaker, telling young people not to take drugs
for any purpose except it’s prescribed by the doctor.”
A former Economics undergraduate of the
University of Lagos, simply identified as Yemi, 28, said he was lured
into taking drugs while in 200 Level in 2008.
He said, “My own case was as a result of
peer influence. I started doing cocaine in 2008, upon seeing friends
doing it. It destroyed my life. It made me do things that I would never
think of doing. I cut my body with blade and did some funny tattoos. I
regret having them.
“My friends bundled me one day in 2009
when I wasn’t normal again and took me to my parents’ home. I think they
took me to a private mental facility where I got recovered. I have
since learned my lessons. I still intend to go back to school someday.”
A sociologist, Dr. Olakunle Alabi, told our correspondent via LinkedIn that undergraduates need to be careful of the kind of friends they move with, because “who you walk with is who you become.”
He added, “Drug abuse is a serious issue
and it is sad that it has destroyed the lives of so many youths. If you
look at the hundreds of the undergraduates in mental facilities, their
future is being jeopardised, meaning that the future of the country is
also jeopardised because whatever potential they have will be killed
until they become normal again.”
In their research on the prevalence of
drug abuse among undergraduates, researchers from the University of
Benin, Edo State — Adeyemo Florence, Ohaeri Beatrice, Pat Okpala and
Ogodo Oghale — said of the 800 students used in the study, it was
discovered that 47 per cent of the sample respondents had taken drugs
for non-medical purposes at least once.
“Coffee and alcohol were the most
commonly abused drugs. Majority of the respondents said they took drugs
as a result of poor teacher-student relationship, improper parental
upbringing, as well as the influence of peer pressure,” the researchers
said.
They added that there was an increasing trend in Nigeria and other developing countries among students using drugs.
“Appropriate interventions, health
education efforts, support and referral systems should be established in
tertiary institutions to help curb this habit and counselling
programmes be incorporated into their health care systems,” they added.
Findings by Saturday PUNCH
showed that some institutions had already put measures in place on their
campuses in a bid to help student victims. They have facilities in
place to help check and monitor the mental health status of students
before even admitting them in the first place.
For instance, the Vice Chancellor of
Babcock University, Prof. Ademola Tayo, said the university has a strong
support system to rehabilitate students suffering from drug abuse.
He said, “Babcock is an institution
within a larger society and what happens within a larger society will be
felt. This is why we have a solid students support centre, where we
have trained clinical and educational psychologists and social welfare
officers.
“The moment we discover a case like
that, they spring into action and if it is something that is beyond
their powers, we refer them to a rehabilitation centre where the student
will be. We do spot-check. We have equipment for psycho-social test
because we know that this is a big problem in our country today, even in
primary and secondary schools.
“It’s something that is pervasive in our
society today and that is why we are investing so much in our students
support system. We do seminars where we invite ex-drug addicts to talk
about the dangers of drug use because if there is any problem we have
been facing in the last two years, it is this issue of drug addiction.
It can derail young people, hence our efforts at protecting our students
from this hazard in our society.”
Preventing drug abuse among undergraduates
In his study, “The social and academic
implications of drug abuse among undergraduates: A case study of the
Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria,” Dr. Solomon
Kobiowu, pointed out that apart from the fact that the intake of drugs
hampers the academic performance of drug abusers in the long run, it
also alters their time sense, decreases their auditory discrimination,
results in difficulty in concentration and brings about the impairment
of ability in some psychometric tests, especially those that are related
to the manipulation of numbers.
He said, “Nature has tried very hard to
protect the brain, and messing around with drugs can change the way the
brain works naturally. When one takes drugs, parts of the brain start to
disagree on what to do, and that creates a big problem. The brain can
solve problems, be creative, be logical, make plans, make wise
decisions, and do almost anything else one can think of. All parts of
the brain work together, to keep us healthy, intelligent and happy.
“However, in order to really help the
situation and curb drug abuse by undergraduates, the government should
have a well-defined comprehensive and realistic policy on control of
drugs. This policy should include establishing a federal drug control
centre, under the auspices of the ministries of health and internal
affairs, which will collate information on drug use, and liaise with
similar smaller units, to be based in each state.
“Public education should be targeted at
the vulnerable segment of the society, such as the older children,
adolescent and young adults. Such educational measures should be
carefully presented through methods that avoid threats and
dramatisation.
“Also, parents and school authorities
should carefully warn their children against the destructive effects of
these drugs. Any realistic attempt aimed at dealing with the issue of
drug abuse must enjoy adequate multidisciplinary deliberation. Any law,
which is designed to control drug abuse behaviour, must embrace
suggestions from the country’s relevant professional bodies such as
psychologists, psychiatrists, sociologists, youth and welfare officers,
counsellors, educationists, ministry of health officials and law
enforcement agents.”
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