The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has commended members and leadership of the House of Representatives for rejecting yet another attempt to push through a bill to decriminalise cannabis cultivation, sale and use in Nigeria.
NDLEA Chairman, Brigadier General Buba Marwa retired, gave the commendation in a statement issued by the agency’s Director, Media and Advocacy, Femi Babafemi on Friday in Abuja.
Members of the House of Representatives had rejected the bill on Thursday.
Responding to the development, the NDLEA boss said the decision of the lawmakers to reject the bill would further strengthen the gains so far made in the renewed war against drug abuse and trafficking in the country.
“Yet there has never been a government that is more committed to ending this spate of insecurity than the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari,” he noted.
“The persistence of the problem has forced on us the necessity to start to look at likely extraneous factors that might be sustaining the resistance from the criminal elements and in doing so, try to connect the dots.
“The permutations will lead to a list of probable causes, which will not exclude the use and abuse of illicit substances.
“In the final analysis, drug abuse is indeed one of the factors fueling insecurity.
“As such, Nigeria cannot afford to permit the cultivation, sale and use of the most abused illicit drug under whatever guise.
“This is why the decision by the honourable members of the House of Representatives to reject the reintroduction of the cannabis bill is a welcome and cheering news to us in NDLEA.
“It is a big thing also to the Nigerian public, especially parents who daily and silently contend with the pains of seeing millions of their kids and wards go down under the devastating effects of cannabis abuse.”