The United Nations on Drug and Crime,UNODC said cannabis is the most widely used drug globally with an estimated 188 million people having used the drug in the previous year.
UNODC, Country Representative, Oliver Stolpe, disclosed this at the 2019 World Drug Day on Wednesday in Abuja.
The theme for the 2019 International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking is: ‘Justice for Health, Health for Justice.’
According him, an estimated 10.6 million Nigerians had used cannabis in the previous year as disclosed in a survey conducted by National Bureau of Statistics with the technical support of UNODC and funded by the European Union.
Stolpe said that more than one third of cannabis users suffer from drug use disorders.
He said that UNODC annual report shows that 271 million people or 5.5 per cent of the global population aged between 15 to 64 have used drugs in the previous year.
He said that the use of cannabis and poly-drug have been a fairly common phenomena in Nigeria with large number of dependent users.
Stolpe said that cannabis production, trafficking, prevention and treatment should not be addressed in isolation, but as part of a holistic approach to drug control.
