The National Agency for Food, Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has advised students and youths in general to shun illicit and narcotic drugs and alcohol.
The Director-General of the agency, Prof. Christiana Adeyeye, gave the advice at the inauguration of NAFDAC Consumer Safety Club (NCSC) at Union Secondary School, Ichi, Ekwusigo Local Government Area, Anambra, on Wednesday.
She said that resistance to experimenting with drugs and alcohol was the best way to escape abuse and its negative consequences.
She further said that drug abuse exposes the individual to drug addiction, serious impairment, illness, death, heart damage, loss of memory, concentration, psychosis, schizophrenia, hallucination and paranoia.
The Director General, represented by the Coordinator of NAFDAC in Anambra, Mr Louis Madubuatta, said to stay free of drug abuse, students should resist peer pressure, develop hobby, take only prescribed medications, concentrate on their studies and refuse to experiment with hard drugs.
“You must develop alcohol drinking refusal skills because of the consequences of alcoholism.
“Once you start, you may not be able to stop.
“We do not get to choose who our parents are or the circumstances of our birth, but you can choose to be the best version of yourself by the choices you make.
“It is high time you as young Nigerians realised that this epidemic of drug and alcohol abuse is destroying families, workforce and destabilising our economy,” he said.
The NAFDAC boss said that the agency was taking the campaign against drug abuse to the grassroots by re-establishing NCSC in secondary schools.
She said the agency would collaborate with schoolteachers to work with students to catch them young and prevent life of addiction and destruction among them.
In a speech, the Principal of the school, Mrs Uche Ewulu, said the initiative would go a long way to addressing drug and alcohol abuse among the youths.
Ewulu thanked Anambra Government and NAFDAC for approving the school and giving the students life-saving skills.
“We are overwhelmed with joy that you chose to organise a programme in our school to impact positively on our students by sensitising them about drug abuse,” she said.
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