The President of the Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria (APN), Dr Taiwo Sheikh, says according to a recent study that 85% of mad people in Nigeria are youths who fall between the age of 18-38.
The Psychiatrist in a recent interview with Daily Independent, said the major cause of mental challenge in Nigeria has gone beyond drug abuse as the youths now inhale lizard droppings as well to get high. According to him,
Taiwo, who explained how young men sniff lizard droppings, said “they are putting their noses into pit toilets to inhale things from there and they are also smoking match sticks. It is now beyond the abuse of drugs sold in pharmacies. Before now, when you talk of substance use disorder your mind goes to use and abuse of substances like heroine, Indian hemp or cocaine but this trend has changed.”
According to BBC report in 2002, three men were interviewed in the northern city of Kano – they revealed substances mixed together in-order to get high.
“The lizard dung is the most important part of the mixture,” one of the men tells me.
“We take a bowl, and start by adding blue dye powder to some water.
“Then we take the seeds from this fruit – called Zaqami. It’s a powerful medicine.
“Next we take the white part of the lizard dung and crumble it into the water. There are other things we can add as well, but this is ok.
Despite the recent call by the Federal Government of Nigeria to ban codeine syrup in the country due to abuse by the youths.
With this statistics released by APN, it shows youths still indulge in other form of drug abuse which the government really needs to look into.