Supply control, demand reduction or harm reduction? Developments and directions for drug policy in Nigeria

Abstract

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, and it is a transit country for the passage of drugs to Western countries. This has among other factors, led to an increasing level of illicit drug use despite a long history of punitive measures of drug control. Nigeria boasts of very punitive laws against both drug use and drug trafficking, which has been endorsed by external bodies such as the US DEA, but there are no harm reduction policies or services and very limited availability of treatment services. There is a need to legislate for demand reduction measures in the country to complement possession and trafficking legislation and the develop treatment services nationally before there is a large increase in HIV and other blood borne diseases. A model of community level treatment services is proposed to deliver services at a local accessible level using existing NGOs and volunteers.

Keywords:

• Drug policy
• law enforcement
• harm reduction
• drug treatment

Disclosure statement

Neither author has any financial conflict of interest in writing this paper. Xxx is involved as a consultant to the UNODC programme for developing community services for drug users.