Drug abuse: Reps ask NAFDAC to ban codeine across counter

Following the alarming rates of drug abuse in some parts of the country, the House of Representatives at plenary yesterday, asked the National Agency for Food, Drugs Administration and Control, NAFDAC, to immediately place a ban on the dispensing and sales of codeine across the counter nationwide.

The House also told the agency to ensure that the drug was sold on prescription.


The resolution followed the consideration and adoption of a motion under matters of urgent public importance sponsored by Abdulsamad Dasuki, (APC, Sokoto).

While moving the motion, Dasuki urged NAFDAC and other health providers to design a central database where prescription data could be logged in to help detect addicts and over prescription.

He decried the increasing rate of drug abuse among youths, emphasizing the need for public awareness by the government and other stakeholders in the health sector over the inherent dangers in the act.

The lawmaker, who placed the number of bottles in Kano and Jigawa states at about 3 million, expressed fears that the malaise had engulfed the entirety of the north.

Dasuki also urged NAFDAC to evolve mechanisms of checkmating and punishing medical doctors and other health experts who abused drugs.

“If this number is consumed in just two states of the 19 Northern states, when the figures of the other 17 states are added, it would be catastrophic,” he said.

He further stated that codeine, which is also known as 3 methyl morphine,

could cause breathing disorder, asthma, kidney disease, among others, and was fast gaining acceleration in the north.