Regulatory clampdowns and financial dire straits in the polity are not slowing down youths’ patronage of illicit substances and the drug economy. They have only quickened their creative use of cheaper and novel substances that are just as potent in getting high as the conventional ones. But improvising with fermented or granules of dried faeces, heated nutmeg, methane gas, glues, liquid solvents, gasoline, fuel fumes, fire extinguisher propellants and other funny substances are equally dangerous for mental health and a saner future for the country, FELICITAS OFFORJAMAH reports.
Jerome, who had sunk deep in hallucination had forgotten to close the bucket of faeces he had inhaled to prevent others from getting the knowledge of his newfound drug.
Jerome, still in ecstasy and inaudible murmuring, had hit this reporter off guard. In his sober state, he had narrated how he became a cocaine addict after being introduced at a freshers’ party. However, due to financial constraints, he devised a way to get high through fermented faeces. “It’s like that cheaper and easily accessible alternative when you can’t reach cocaine,” he said.
Another user of the drug improvisation is Lateef. “Faeces dey everywhere. You fit get am yourself or from anybody. If I no see my normal wewe, na wetin I dey use hold myself.” Replying to the question on how he got to know about the homemade high, “Normal naa, na one of my guys go yarn me…”
The sister of a deceased drug addict, who pleaded anonymity, had narrated that her brother had gotten exposed to the usage of fermented excreta to get high at the University where he made the wrong friends.
“The bad company he kept usually made our family worried,” she said. “We knew he was into codeine and all that, but we didn’t know he was introduced to inhalation of faeces until we saw him lying dead in the toilet.
“When I questioned one of his friends, he said it has been quite hard to get codeine recently, but they resort to faeces to hold themselves. It’s painful remembering it.”
Another victim of the improvisation had said that strict controls had been employed in some parts of Borno state and the desire of wanting to get high on something has led him and his acquaintances to inhale faeces.
Fermented faeces also called Jenkem, is a homemade drug that gives users a “euphoric high similar to ingesting cocaine, but with strong hallucinations of times past” by letting human urine and faeces ferment in a container with a balloon covering the opening allowing users to inhale the produced methane gas.
Apart from the taste of sewage lingering for days in the mouths of Jenkem users, Public Health Nigeria (PHN), an Interdisciplinary Public Health Movement, researched that the possibility of faecal-oral contamination due to lacking hygienic conditions during Jenkem manufacturing could lead to diarrhoea and other gastrointestinal infections.
Dangerous substances
According to findings, “Human excreta have been implicated in the transmission of many infectious diseases including cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, polio, and cryptosporidiosis. The inhalation of gases like those produced from Jenkem could result in hypoxia, a lack of oxygen flow to the body that could be alternately euphoric and physically dangerous. Minor hypoxia may cause damage over time, but deep levels of hypoxia can result in near-instantaneous brain damage – sometimes within a minute or two. After five minutes, brain cell death begins to occur, and severe brain damage may accompany it as well.”
Sniffing the self-destruct button
Spices are commonly used in culinary products and are generally considered safe, although there have been instances of purposeful misuse. Spices are readily accessible, reasonably priced, and may be thought to be safer than conventional drugs of abuse by people of all ages.
Rebecca, a habitual user of nutmeg, to get high was caught by her mum hallucinating as she was holding tightly to a jar of nutmeg.
She said it was something she got into while in boarding school. “We tell day students to buy nutmeg for us those days. Sometimes we put it on low heat while inhaling the fumes, and we consume it in large doses at times. It’s something I have gotten used to.”
Unlike Rebecca, who uses nutmeg for recreational purposes, another user who begged for anonymity uses nutmeg to increase her sexual drive.
“It’s not like I smoke it as per drug, I use it for increased sexual activity. When I take large amounts, it just makes me want to do it. Nothing bad sha. You could try it too. The inhalation and ingestion could make you horny. That’s just it.”
Popular spice nutmeg has the potential to provide a “high” akin to some hallucinogenic substances when taken in excess. This is known as nutmeg intoxication. Researchers have proved that intoxication from nutmeg can have serious symptoms and side effects.
Cinnamon and vanilla are also commonly abused spices but the common one being nutmeg, the major component is myristicin. Myristicin causes symptoms like those of psychosis or hallucination.
According to MedicalNewsToday, “When a person consumes myristicin, the body metabolises, forming 3-methoxy-4,5-methylenedioxyamphetamine (MMDA). MMDA has hallucinogenic properties, and it is the effects of MMDA on the central nervous system that lead to the nutmeg high.”
Seizures and organ damage are among the more severe risks with toxic myristicin dosages. The symptoms of nutmeg intoxication are likely to worsen if the person has already consumed other dangerous substances. There have been fatal occurrences when nutmeg overdoses have been combined with other dangerous drugs. Myristicin toxicity causes organ failure and even death.
In a 1966 assessment on the use of nutmeg as a psychotropic drug, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime called it “a narcotic not only because it can induce stupor but also because many persons now consume it deliberately to escape reality.”
A nation on drugs
Nigeria has a drug problem that is not peculiar. Substance use and abuse are traditional ailments of modern societies that are far from abating in contemporary times. The World Drug Report 2022, by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), detailed record rises in the manufacturing of cocaine and the expansion of synthetic drugs to new markets.
According to the report, around 284 million people aged 15–64 used drugs worldwide in 2020, a 26 per cent increase over the previous decade. The point is that young people are using more drugs, with use levels today in many countries higher than in the previous generation. “In Africa and Latin America, people under 35 represent the majority of people being treated for drug use disorders,” the report read in part.
Drug addicts. PHOTO: BBC
UNODC Executive Director Ghada Waly noted that numbers for the manufacturing and seizures of many illicit drugs are hitting record highs, even as global emergencies are deepening vulnerabilities.
The Guardian recently published an in-depth analysis of drug abuse in Nigeria with the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Brig. Gen. Buba Marwa (rtd), saying that drug abuse had assumed a frightening dimension in the country, with over 14.3 million Nigerians, aged 15-64, using psychoactive substances. Routine seizures by the NDLEA in 2022 hit N500 billion, amid concerns that the 2023 figures may be worrisome.
Due to joblessness, scarcity, and non-affordability of pricey illicit substances like cocaine and heroin, faeces and nutmeg are not the only substances creatively used to get high.
Inhaling fumes from glues, liquid solvents, gasoline and fuel gasses, aerosols, nitrites, and fire extinguisher propellants are a part of creative inventions. Other common homemade substances used by addicts include a concoction of carbonated soft drinks, homemade alcohol, gutter water, and sodium hypochlorite solution (bleach). Pure plant-based compounds are also available. Some consume pawpaw leaves and seeds, zakami (Datura metel) seeds, and moringa (zogale) leaves by chewing or smoking them.
Aside from restricted access to hard drugs and financial constraints in their purchase, some drug users desire a stronger and longer-lasting high, thus they prefer them to traditional drugs. It is also discovered that some individuals will use these drugs, like petrol, to increase their energy levels to perform strenuous labour.
Chairman/Chief Executive of the NDLEA, Brig. General Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd). Photo: TWITTER/NDLEANIGERIA/OLAWALEADEKOLA
Some use them to extend the duration of their sex escapades. Research has proven that psychoactive drugs have a very strong potency. These new psychoactive substances are dangerous for public health, but because they are difficult to detect, they are not regulated by existing conventions on drugs, such as the 1961 Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs or the 1971 Convention on Psychotropic Substances, which makes it easier to detect, classify, and regulate traditional drugs like ecstasy, cocaine, and cannabis internationally.
The NDLEA Commander of Narcotics in Borno State, Iliyasu Mani, had said that the depth of drug abuse had reached a worrying degree.
Mani said: “Our battle against drug abuse is increasingly challenging, especially with young teens and women being involved. Not only are regular items being abused, but more dangerous materials like camel pee, lizard dung, and most importantly, fermented human urine that has been kept for more than ten days, are being used.”
According to him, the command has instituted drop-in centres for drug abuse research in all tertiary universities, detained 863 individuals, and seized 4.5 tonnes of illegal substances while he was in charge.
He continued by saying that out of the people detained, 53 had been found guilty and 736 were receiving counselling.
According to the 2018 household survey by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, which was reassessed in 2021 and 2022, Nigeria had a 14.3 per cent drug addiction rate, which was three times higher than the 5.6 per cent global average.
“The survey put the prevalence of illicit drugs in the north-east at 13.6 per cent, 12 per cent in the north-west and 10 per cent in the North-central.”
A concerted effort is germane
Urging the public not to relent in fighting against substance abuse, he stated that the agency has strengthened its efforts towards prevention strategy through the establishment of remodelled counselling and rehab centres in the State.
But one part is ignored, these substances are accessible and can be manufactured at home. What reach does the Agency have to each family in the Federation? It boils down to the role of families, schools and the community where individuals especially youths are prone to bad influences – monitoring, orientation and taking advantage of rehab centres provided by the Enforcement Agency amongst other measures have become paramount.
According to Yusuf Aliu, a police officer has said that the Nigerian police and other law enforcement organisations that frequently enforce laws through intimidation and the war on drugs should be kept apart for the campaign to be successful.
“This is mainly because punishing drug users brutally hasn’t made drugs less accessible or less popular in Nigeria. The usual consequence of habitual use of these homemade products to get high is extreme violence, gang rape, drug-induced suicide, paranoia, subpar academic performance, thievery (to support the habit), school dropout, poor health, debt, and resource (money and material) waste are some of the outcomes of drug addiction among students.
“Substance misuse is also linked to anti-social vices among students, including armed robbery, racketeering, cults, and thuggery. This implies that everyone is affected by the issue of drug usage among children, including parents, the school, other students, and the wider public.”
Addicts, having yielded to low-cost alternatives—even concoctions—to get euphoric, Psychologist and mental health expert, Geraldine Chidiogo, stated that the harmful substances gotten from inhalation swiftly enter the bloodstream through the lungs and depress the central nervous system.
“It causes a reaction that is best described as euphoric and exhilarating feelings as well as a numbing sensation that helps users forget about the everyday struggles of growing up in dysfunctional environments. In an age where everyone wants to get high and forget their problems, especially in the state Nigeria is in, stakeholders need to step up their game or we will lose the sanity of our future generation.”
Speaking on the healing measures for youths, who improvise home goods into drugs, Maymunah Kadiri, a Psychologist, recommended that addicted individuals can seek professional support.
“Therapy can provide a safe space for survivors to process their emotions, develop coping strategies, and work towards regaining a sense of control over their lives. It is also important to raise awareness about this unusual activity and educate people about the negative impact it can have on individuals and society.
“This can be done through public campaigns, workshops, and other educational initiatives. As a result, a plan must be put in place to deal with the problem. A national campaign is needed. It must provide youth with the necessary information about the risks associated with substance use. This endeavour should be supported by reputable government organisations like the Ministry of Health and the National Orientation Agency of Nigeria.”
According to the Chief Medical Director of Lagos Executive Cardiovascular Centre, Dr Folasade Alli, the economic downturn in Nigeria might have had a significant impact on personal lives.
“Alli said that financial worries, job insecurity, and increased stress levels are common at times like this, all of which can contribute to disruptive behaviours. She also stated that when individuals are preoccupied with financial concerns, they may experience heightened levels of anxiety and worry, making it difficult to get out of that addiction.
“Parents should look at their ward and pay close observation to them. When they notice strange behaviours, they should take proactive steps. Anything can happen these days. When your intuition says this child needs therapy, obey it. Chronic addiction to negative use of substances can impair judgement, decision-making, and problem-solving abilities, affecting performance at work or school.
“We must take proactive steps against these weird behaviours in addicts. The goal of campaigns should be to discourage people from experimenting with new psychoactive substances. Additionally, without stigmatising people who already use narcotics, efforts must be made to reorient them,” she said.