The Abuja Drug Rehab Home Where Kids Of The Rich Are kept.

Her songs attract visitors around the area while occasional screaming of another one raises an eyebrow. Interestingly, they are mainly female and their peeping from the windows to catch a glimpse of the outside world compels attention. Welcome to the Abuja Drug Demand Reduction Centre of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency.
The facility is a closed area and the first impression is that the cell is a detention facility holding drug suspects. This is more so as on the second floor are about thirty males who were reported to be suspects held for drug possession or usage. The boys in their own case had the unusual records of religious worship at odd hours. But it was later discovered that the second floor is truly a cell for suspects while the first floor comprising mostly of females is a sort of rehabilitation centre.
Against the background of increasing drug usage and addiction in Abuja and many parts of the North, the number of young boys and girls with access to drug is on the increase. Across relaxation points in the federal city, drug sales and usage are common place. A striking oberservation of this trend shows that children from well-to-do families are mostly affected.
Due to high cost of units of cocaine, heroin and other assorted drugs, the circle of users is mainly top flights kids who parade the city in flash cars.
With soft fund from parents, buying and using hard drug in smaller units is becoming fashionable among the elite kids in the city. Investigations reveal that aside attending top flight schools and riding the best cars, hard drug usage is becoming another status symbol of youths from rich families in the capital city.
Abuja Xtra checks showed that access to easy fund and permissiveness of most rich families in the city have increased the number of rich kids either caught with drug or intercepted selling same to colleagues. The situation has created prosecution dilemma for the drug authorities as the suspects are not traffickers but users who can hardly traced the source of drugs in their possession. If arrested and bailed today, few days later, same youth with high class background are either arrested again or linked with drug sales across the relaxation points within the city, investigations showed.
Abuja Xtra was told that the situation developed into a bizarre situation in recent years with some parents developing cold feet when it comes to bailing their increasingly addicted kids from drug cells. This was said to be the genesis of the Drug Demand Reduction (DDR) Programme of the NDLEA.
“Some parents approach us to help them keep and rehabilitate their kids. Effectively, they surrender their kids to the drug authority. So those girls are mostly brought by their parents``, a source within the drug agency told Abuja Xtra. In some instances, it was gathered that the agency enforced mandatory rehab in cases of acute addiction.
Drug Demand Reduction is a major statutory responsibility of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency. According to the agency, the idea is to deny the addicted kids access to drugs for a long period of time so as to wean them away from hard drug usage. Hence many rich parents pay nocturnal visits to the center under the cover of darkness to see the progress or otherwise of their children.
For the Abuja center, it was learnt that doctors regularly attend to the inmates. Is the programme succeeding as planned? An official within the agency narrated many good outcomes. The source however pointed out that there are many bad cases defying rehab and verging on mental disorder crisis. An example was cited of a singing detainee whose case is said to be particularly serious.
The other issue has to do with increasing number of addicts needing such attention. As the suspects cell swells, the number of those needing attention of the DDR increases. Some suspects after serving jail term for drug usage are back in the cell few months after. After such repeated incidents, prosecution is seen as not yielding results, hence rehabilitation detention. There was a story of an estate developer in Abuja whose son was arrested and bailed three times due to drug possession and usage. The big man is said to be passing through harrowing experience on the case.
Abuja Xtra however observed that low funding is seriously hampering the capacity of the agency to perform its operations. The situation at the center exposes the need for better funding of the rehabilitation aspects of the Agency’s work. Though unconfirmed, reports had it that parents had to supplement for the upkeep of their wards while in the rehab.
As more rich kids are detained or sent to rehab, the authorities of the Federal Capital Territory Administration may before long have to consider partnering with the drug Agency for the establishment and operation of a drug addiction rehabilitation center.

Source The Tribune