From Fred Ezeh, Abuja
The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), has announced a change in approach and reinvented new tactics to tackle the menace of drug abuse.
The agency announced that it commenced house-to-house campaign to educate the family unit of the short and long devastating effects of hard drugs in both individual and societal lives.
NDLEA chairman, Col. Muhammed Abdallah (retd), in a statement yesterday insisted that family units were key component in the fight against drug abuse, thus highlighting their role in success or otherwise of the fight.
He said the campaign would include family outreach with educative and enlightenment messages written in easy-to-understand languages on the deadly effects of hard drugs and substance intake to body system.
He added: “We observed lots of gap within our family units because of chase for money and other material things. It was even more worrisome that some family members don’t even know themselves well.
“Unfortunately, it was on family that the society was built. So we have decided to return to the root to tackle this issue.”
He appealed to parents to welcome the campaign and assist the agency inculcate the right home values in their children, even as they watch over the kind of friends they keep. These, according to him, would help build a drug free society.
He admitted that arrest, prosecution and conviction of drug addicts would not end the menace but a reinvigorated effort with the support of the family unit would help tackle the menace.