Senator Gbenga Ashafa has raised the alarm over the rising rate of drug abuse among young people in Nigeria stressing that it is now a national concern.

In an interview published on the twitter handle of the Nigerian Senate: @NGRSenate, Sen. Ashafa said that there was an urgent need to combat drug abuse among youths.

The interview was conducted and made available by Bamikole Omishore, Special Assistant to the President of the Senate on New Media.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the senator is sponsoring a bill in the upper legislative chamber aimed at curbing the menace of drug abuse in Nigeria.

According o Ashafa, the rate at which the youth including girls were abusing drugs was now on the increase.

He said that if nothing is done about it urgently, mental homes will be filled with youths seeking treatment from drug related illness.

He feared that when the federal government eventually succeeds in creating jobs, there might be no sound youths left for the employment.

“When I was thinking about this bill what was in my mind was the situation where our youths are just abusing drugs.

“Now what I heard is that there is a particular drug that ladies now take when they go to parties and this is supposed to be a cough suppressant.

“They take it in volumes and then go to parties.

“Drugs is something that is affecting that group of Nigerians, if nobody is saying anything, in the next three years we would have our psychiatric homes full of young people begging for mental treatment.

“If we succeed in creating employment for our youth, what kind of youths are we creating the jobs for?

“Are we creating the jobs for sound minded individuals and young people or what? That is part of the side effects we are having with that,” he said.

He said that a former head of state saw the bill and commended it while also making some inputs which has been sent through the President of the Senate Dr. Bukola Saraki.