How Communities Contribute To Drug Abusers

An Associate Professor in medical law, Dr. Ifeoluwayimika Bamidele has said that it is not just drug that kill drug abusers, stating that communities also contribute to their death.

He emphasized that people died because they abuse drug, but the challenge is that when people abuse drug they do not get help from the communities.

Dr Bamidele stated that the discrimination and stigmatization drug abusers receives from the communities prevent them to seek for help and when they refuse to seek for help the drug can end their lives.

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He said communities should reduce the death of drug abusers and the mourning of their family by encouraging them to seek for help from professionals on Rave FM Osogbo on Wednesday edition of Frank Talk.

He however urges churches, Mosques and Family members to stop stigmatising victims, rather they should pray for them, support them, encourages them and accept them back into the fold stating that they are just a victim of the drug traffickers.

“It is not just drug that kill, people die because they abuse drug but it is not the drug, the real problem is that when people start abusing drugs they do not get help.

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“The stigma and the discrimination prevent people from seeking for help and because they refuse to seek for help the dangers of that drug or abusing that drug can get to them and then their lives can end.

“So let us reduce the number of death, let us reduce the number of mother who have to cry, let us reduce the number of family who are in mourning, and then let us encourage people to seek help.

“It is not as if we are encouraging people to abuse drugs, it is because we have discovered that majority of those who currently use are victims, they are victims of the tracfficker, they are victims of the man in buisness, they are victims of a particular person who think they can make profit off them and the family begin to suffer for life.

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“Either because they are not able to afford the rehabilitation process or because it is difficult for them to even acknowledge or identify that there is a problem, so the people centre approach to prevention and rehabilitation, it will save lives, it will reduce death.

“The Church has this professionals, the mosque has this professionals, some of the Imams are also medical doctor, some of them are psychiatrist, some of them are psychologist, so while we are making prayers for this young Alhaji, for this young brother in the choir, for this young Oluwo, we must also ensure that he speaks to his psychiatrist, he speaks to his psychologist, he goes for his counselling session.

“If there is medication that he had been given he uses his medication, if he suppose to spend a particular time or tenure in rehabilitation we don’t pray him out of the rehabilitation we support him encourages him prayer, visit him let him know that he will be welcome back into the fold.

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“One of the reason we are saying this is that many people have even attempted to go to the rehabilitation when they comes back in their religious centres they begin to point fingers saying see your brother, look at your family member he just from those people, the names, the tags, that we give people, drunkie, drugie, stop the discrimination, stop the stigma, let us welcome them.”