Retired Brig.-Gen. Buba Marwa, Chairman, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), has said cannabis cannot be legalized because drugs has been the driver of high crime rate and violent killings, according to research.
Marwa through the agency’s Director Media and Advocacy, Mr Femi Babafemi on Friday in Abuja, said in developing or third world countries, drug is the escalator of strife, pogroms and war.
He warned that the population of Nigerians hooked on cannabis alone was more than the population of Portugal, Greece or the Republic of Benin.and Nigerian cannot afford to toy with the grim reality of the danger of legalising cannabis.
He stressed that all the needed infrastructure to monitor and control drugs were still far from being in place.
“We have seen narco-terrorism in Colombia and Mexico where drug cartels are law unto themselves and are as powerful, if not more powerful, than the state.
“So, there are real cases, not scenarios, of where and how illicit substances played a role in a society’s rapid descent into chaos and tethering on the brink of a failed state.
“So the pertinent question for us today is: Has drugs played any role in the festering insecurity in Nigeria?
“The answer is yes. Of this we have ample evidence.
“Cannabis sativa is the most abused of all illicit drugs, and from the findings of the National drug Survey of 2018, it is becoming a national albatross,” he said.
Marwa further warned people to stop treating cannabis like some sweet candy without any side effects, because the repercussions outweighed the vaunted benefits.
He maintained that legalising cannabis cultivation for a country such as Nigeria would not do any good.
