RAISING A GENERATION OF ADDICTS

Here is a doctor's story unedited:


I found this video about codeine addiction and it's effect and it just makes me sad.
Indeed, we are raising a generation of addicts! I shudder to think about what the next generation will be like- if they make it that far. The increase in violence against each other, increase in unusual behaviour, increase in mental illnesses and suicide, increase in impotence and sterility, increase in other diseases.
Of a truth, I shudder!

This brings me to my encounter with Tramadol in January.
I am a medical doctor and I always believed Tramadol is an analgesia. QED.
That mindset was erased when I sat down to have a heart to heart talk with a vivacious, full of life, young man, in my consulting room in one of the primary health care centers in Lagos state. It was a conversation, not a consultation.

He had come to me to ask if Tramadol had side effects. My response to him was that even Paracetamol which we take for our headaches has side effects but as long as it wasn't abused then, we could all hope to remain safe.

Then we had the most enlightening conversation....
He wasn't talking about Tramadol, as I knew it. He brought out a 225mg Tramadol tablet. I am a doctor and prior to this, I had never seen one. I never even knew they existed! I was familiar with 50mg and 100mg capsules but a 225mg tablet? No sire! Then he told me there were even 500mg tablets for those who took 1000mg tablets at once!

To say I was shocked is an understatement. How? He had started using Tramadol over 5 years ago in 100L while in the higher institution. It helped him stay awake all night to read and assimilate all that he read. Gradually he had graduated to 100mg.

Now, over 5 years later, he was on 225mg daily , or every other day, depending on what he hoped to achieve. Sometimes, he popped 2 tablets. He used it when he needed to work as it gave him the energy required to work like a horse. It increased his libido and staying power when he had a new babe that he needed to impress, infact, he was the supplier of a couple of married men when they had a new girl they wanted to impress with their bedroom skills....The benefits of Tramadol were apparently numerous!

In my shock, I asked him if he wasn't worried about his future, his organs or the possibility of survival without it. Of course he wasn't. It was always available in a lot of road side chemists sef, no need to go far. As per the dose? He considered himself a good boy as a lot of people were on 500mg or more per day and he could still do well with 225mg. I counselled him in the best way I could and told him he was jeopardizing his future but, I know my words fell on deaf ears. I see him sometimes and I know he hasn't made any attempt to kick this habit.

I spoke to as many people as I knew about that encounter. The shock of it would not let me keep quiet and to my utmost dismay, I realised I was the naive one! It was rampant and it was "the norm"!
A university undergraduate laughed and said "haba aunty , it's normal Now, it's called Trams and all the guys use it.... 500mg, 1000mg, infact that's not all they use. They combine it with "blue boy" and something else I can't remember now. No party is a party without trams and codeine and blue boy.

Before, it used to be marijuana but now girls know the smell of marijuana so guys use trams and codeine to spike the drinks so the girls can lose their inhibitions.
It has become so normal to find a group of guys who are talking and one just falls and starts convulsing, you will know those are the ones who take trams...."

The conversation went on and I realised how deep the problem was and how much trouble we are in, as a nation. These are the leaders of tomorrow, the fathers and people who would be at the helm of affairs.
What chaos.
 Then, other things started to make sense.... things I had heard that were unimaginable previously... remember the high school students who finished waec some years ago and how the boys went crazy and started slashing the skirts of their fellow female colleagues and raping them, on the streets, in broad daylight! A mother had to intervene and that was it.... Likely they were also under the influence.

A lot of other unimaginable things....
In February, I encountered a woman who said her son had 2 convulsions in the past 2 weeks... my 1st question to him was do you use tramadol?Previously, I would have been looking for a medical cure but Now? I knew better.

He responded " I used to, I stopped 2 weeks ago" . And there was our reason for the convulsions...he was having withdrawal symptoms! He was even lucky, he had only 2 convulsions in 2 weeks! Some people have repeated  convulsions and so they have to be admitted to have the seizures controlled.
He was in 200L in the university, he lived with his cousins who attended the same school and all took Tramadol, along with their friends and neighbours.

 He was on 500mg daily before he stopped... 500mg. His cousins took a whole lot more. My main concern was this, even if we could stop him and rehabilitate him, how would he overcome the temptation posed by his cousins? Or would we take him out of school because of this? Peer pressure was ruining his life. His mum was devastated. She had gone beyond being angry and disappointed, she just wanted help!

I told her where to go, I hope the outcome is good but the truth , as sad as it is, is we are raising a generation of addicts and I don't think anyone is doing anything about it.
Do we have enough people speaking against it? Enlightening these kids about how they are damaging their future? I do not think so. Are there measures to stop this addicts from getting the drugs? Obviously not! The guy I spoke with said the police raid these chemists regularly with the hopes of catching them red handed so they can collect "chop money". Is this true? I have no clue.

I do not think enough is being done by the regulatory bodies either, I stand to be corrected. That rep said fresh from the oven.... if I had 1 million cartons I will finish it in a week! Hmmmmmmm.

And even if we could change the situation, do we have enough resources to rehabilitate these people who need it? I seriously doubt it. And so....

I fear.
I worry.
It started in the university.... Now it is in the secondary schools... imagine a world where primary school pupils are addicts too.
What can we do?
Who will help save our children?
I am asking this...
I think you should all start asking too.

#IamDrTega
#drugabuseisreal
#drugabuseisamongstus
#helpsaveourchildren
#helpsaveourfuture
#raisingagenerationofaddicts