The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) is proposing a compulsory drug integrity test for intending couples.
Public Relationd Officer of the NDLEA in Rivers State command Emmanuel Ogungbade, told our reporter that the agency is worried at the level of domestic violence in many homes in recent time, adding that the development was more alarming due to the high intake of drugs amongst men and women.
Mr Emmanuel Ogungbade further said that most marriages are getting disintegrated as a result of drug problem.
He said it is disersterous when a home is destroyed because of drug problem adding that it will affect the children and make them not to excel well.
Ogunbade also said that it would impact not only on the immediate family but the large family and the society at large.
According to him the organization was trying to be proactive and encourage religious body to join them in the quest to ensure that the problem of drug abuse was tackled, especially from the home front.
The NDLEA spokesperson explained that the essence of the drug test for the intending couples was to identify those who are positive, so as to recommend treatment, counceling and possibly rehabilitation pending on the intensity of addiction.
” An individual that just started taking drugs, can get out of it easily. If the person is counceled and given proper enlightenment, the person would understand that it is dangerous to engage in it, and will want to keep off it” he concluded.
NDLEA however said the proposal can only be effective if religious leaders in Nigeria accept it.
Meanwhile, a constitutional lawyer Chukwuma Chinwo has argued that the proposed by the Nigeria Drug Law Enforcement Agency NDLEA to conduct a drug integrity test for intending couples in Nigeria will amount to abuse of power. He said NDLEA lacks the power to carry out such a thing on intending couples before marriage.
The constitutional lawyer Chukwuma Chinwo further said that the provision of National Drug Law Enforcement Agency NDLEA is to stop the sale and production of that drug and not to conduct such test on intending couples.
