There is a raging battle in the hands of Customs and NDLEA to rid the country of an estimated N10 billion worth of Tramadol tablets in wrong hands, hitting hard on the country’s teeming youth population.
Aside many other non-pharmaceutical sources of getting high, Tramadol being shipped into Nigeria mostly from Asia, has proven to be the cheapest drug that can be sourced from the streetlights.
Addicts can get high with as little as N50. With high supply outweighing demand, the drug enjoys a ubiquitous presence across the country.
Sold alongside other performance enhancing pills, Tramadol is hawked cheaply on wheelbarrows in different parts of Lagos by unregistered and mostly unlettered vendors.
These vendors dispense without prescription and with a sense of innocence that they are trading for a living, not having a feeling that they are hurting lives and the society.
The ignorance about its impacts also touches on the consumers too.
Some whose religious beliefs forbid alcohol, which they comply with, eventually see nothing wrong in a more harmful Tramadol with lasting negative impacts on their health.
Visibility of the drug in a place like Lagos with higher degree of policing indicates strong possibility of deeper penetration in other states with lesser presence and monitoring by the security agents.
It now competes with cannabis sativa (Indian hemp) which over the years has been noted to be Nigeria’s most abused narcotic substance because of high affordability and perceived ease of access.
While Indian Hemp is locally cultivated, Tramadol comes into the country from China and India.
Though not on the government imports prohibition list, attempts at smuggling it into Nigeria under the guise of other approved products seems increasing.
A recent seizure of the drug in Tincan Island Port of Lagos further confirms this.
Laden in two containers, Customs Controller, Baba Abdullahi Musa, told journalists that the seized tramadol hydrochloride (225mg) were declared as electrical static converters and ciprofloxacin .
Tincan Port Customs spokesman, Uche Ejesieme, said that the duty rate for the tramadol and electric static converters were 20 percent except for differentials occasioned by cost of freight.
“For instance, cost of freight from China to Nigeria is not same with freight from India to Nigeria. The wrong declaration was intended to deceive Customs officers and bring in the drug for illicit use.
“It may interest you that the requisite registration with the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) was also not fulfilled in the case of the drug,” Ejesieme said.
Earlier in the year, Abubakar Bashir, Customs Area Controller in Onne Port Rivers State, had made a seizure of nine containers of the drug also falsely declared to evade detection.
Bashir said that the drugs came in from China and India, adding that they were declared to be pressure reducing drugs.
They were found to be in 8245 cartons consisting of 250mg of tramadol and other drugs.
These seizures may have been made after outright refusal by Customs to compromise with the importers and smugglers to exit the ports with the consignments .
The seizures and mop up have a widespread effect as almost every part of the country is affected as indicated in a seizure statistics provided by NDLEA spokesman.
With a growing number of addicts among the youths within the age bracket of 22 and 35, people can get the drug for as low as N50 for a shot (dose) which satisfies the immediate urge of addicts.
Jonah Achema, spokesman for the NDLEA, said that a total of 53,804.67 kilograms of tramadol were intercepted in 2016 while in 2017 96,136.67 kilograms were seized.
This figure represents 44.03% increase.
Achema said that the agency was deliberately silent on the amounts involved in drug valuation as a means of preventing business persons interests in the unlawful and illicit trades.
A commercial motorbike rider who identified himself as Abdul told our reporter that the drug helps him to develop more strength for his job and that with it, he works all day into the night without getting tired.
When asked if he understands the likely effect of the drug on his health, he displayed ignorance while continually eulogising the medicine as a good substance that helps him meet his daily target with vigour.
Vendors are willing to sell but very reluctant to disclose their sources of supply for reason of profit believing that whoever truly needs it, should get through their channels.
The influx seems unrelenting as airports, seaports and land borders are being used to smuggle the substance into Nigeria.
If not quickly checked, Nigeria may have to battle with rehabilitating high number of addicts at huge costs to the state.
In 2017, a total number of 1167 cases were handled as admissions through referrals.
About Tramadol
Tramadol is an opioid analgesic similar in effect to morphine, heroine or codeine. The medically approved dosage of Tramadol is between 50mg to 100mg per dose.
Tramadol tablets in excess of 100mg are often abused as heroin alternative or heroine substitute.
It is also used by drug abusers to boost or potentiate the psychoactive effects of other drugs thereby making their effects to be hyped or manifold, for example, when taken with other sedatives or tranquilizers such as barbiturates or benzodiazepines, Tramadol potentials magnifies their effects.
It is also often used as heroine bulking agent or adulterant, therefore further booting and sustaining the psychoactive effects of heroine.
Side Effects:
This includes nausea, dizziness, dry month, indigestion, abdominal pain, vertigo, vomiting, constipation, drowsiness and headache. Long term use of high doses causes physical dependence and withdrawal syndrome. Withdrawal symptoms include numbness, tingling, paraesthesia and tinnitus.
Psychiatric syndrome may include hallucinations, paranoia, extreme anxiety, panic attacks and confusion.
