by Mbawuike Anthony Okechukwu

The streets of Nigeria have been filled with lots of herbal mixtures being paraded all over it; some with large speakers, advertising to the public its many health benefits –which in most cases, are numerous, and just a phantom wish that they actually do. The problems with these drugs are not only that they are not prepared aseptically, but also with loose government policies to check-mate their increasing influx to the streets, and indiscriminate use by consumers.

Nature has been so fair to man by gifting him with medicinal substances of leaves, stalks and barks of plants,which are very essential to the body; what we use them for, and how we use them, is now up to us. Like everything in life: too much and indiscriminate use of anything becomes dangerous to our health. While I support the use of traditional medicine, at least in a rational way, I believe measures should be put in place to check their uses and abuse.

Recently, I encountered a scene at a market in Sango in Saki West LGA of Oyo State. A large crowd had gathered round a man who was busy and “professionally” preparing a herbal mixture. I had thought it was “Mae Tea” seller, whose customers had gathered for lunch. On approaching him, I observed that he was mixing up herbs into bottles. He was boiling some, grinding some, and would slice some into pieces and put them into a bottle. What surprised me later was that he then emptied at least two contents of each sachet of coffee to each bottle, and shook the bottle vigorously before offering a glass to each of the customers that had gathered round him.

The act drew my curiosity, and I wondered why caffeine should be added to a herbal mixture whose function(s) I do not know.

“Like, seriously?! Am I dreaming?!” I kept asking myself these questions. Although caffeine abuse – or, its effects on human health- have not been found to be as severe as that of codeine, cocaine, and the likes, however, some researches suggested that it could be addictive. While some researchers posit that we consume caffeine for the pleasure of the product, others suggest it is as a result of craving for it. Whatever be the case, the addition of caffeine into the mixture was, to me, an eyesore.

In recent times, particularly in the northern parts of Nigeria, there has been an increase in cases of codeine abuse. It was discovered that there was an increase in demand of cough syrup, especially those containing codeine, which led to a scarcity of the product in the market. People could pay five times the prize of cough syrup to satisfy their cravings. Investigations later revealed that people were abusing the drug because it contains codeine. A friend –a corper who served in Jigawa state – once told me that it was been added to a herbal mixture and sold in glass cups to consumers.

Now, let’s have a recap of what codeine is, and why it may not be too different from caffeine especially when added to another mixture whose pharmacological properties are unknown to us.

CODEINE is a short-acting narcotics used to relieve pain. It causes an overall sense of calm, and gives a feeling of pleasure to consumers. These properties are the reasons why the drug is under serious abuse because consumers always want to relive that feeling of pleasure.

CAFFEINE is a content of most beverages, and its quantities differ among the products. It has a way of driving away sleep and exciting the body –still a feeling of pleasure, through a complex chemical reactions which raises the Dopamine and Norepinephrine level in the body. Dopamine plays an important role in the regulation of our mood, same with Norepinephrine which is also involved in controlling pain and sets up our body for the ‘fight or flight response’, a body’s biological response to stress.

For these simple reasons above, it could easily become addictive, hence consumers crave for them always.

Now, back to my Sango market herbs vendor experience. With my ‘little’ knowledge of the effects of caffeine to the body and how most of these herbs do not undergo the best practices of drug preparation and regulations, I believe there is a brewing trouble here.

The crowd that gathered at the vendors shop while waiting patiently the seller to prepare the herbs suggested one thing: they craved for it. Now the question is: What is the function of the herbal mixture itself without the addition of caffeine? What function does the addition of caffeine have on the herbal mixture?

Most drugs that have been known to be abused have been discovered to give a euphoric feeling which makes people to crave for them, and as such the Sango herbal mixture with caffeine cannot be an exception. The people have gathered to receive a glass of the herbs, either to make them more energetic for the days activities, or make them relax after the days work. Either case, it affects their reasoning and judgement, and could make them more violent.

Joints like this, where these junk herbal mixtures are sold might be all over the country, and might be the new kind of cocaine, metaphetamine, etc. It is easy for people to walk into these joints and demand a glass of these ‘mystery’ mixtures to give them a feeling of satisfaction, raise their pleasure threshold, eject their sense of judgement, and make them prone to violent. If the security operatives must continue in their effort at curbing crimes in Nigeria, they will need to be more proactive in curbing these ignoble practices being exhibited on our streets by these vendors who go about their trade without any fear of being caught by the law.

The NDLEA, NAFDAC and other agencies need to act more to check this rising menace before it fills up our streets. Drug abuse is not all about Cocaine, Marijuawa and Metaphetamine. People might have found an alternative to those hard drugs in order to avoid securities forces, and then grow their drug businesses.

I frowned when I saw them selling openly what I thought was harmful to one’s health and illegal in our society, and wondered: If this is not drug abuse, what is it then?

Okechukwu tweets from @MrTohNey