The Executive Secretary, National Association of Nigeria Drug Monitoring (NANDROM), Dr. Christabel Okoye, has blamed the rising cases of drugs abuse among the youth on the failure of parents to watch over their children.

Okoye who runs a drug rehabilitation and detoxification centre in Abuja, noted that in the course of her work, she discovered that some parents don’t care about the conduct of their children, especially when they go out and when they come back.

Speaking with some journalists at the National Assembly complex yesterday, she said pointed out that the ugly situation had made drug abuse to be on the increase and that pupils of primary school age were part of the menace.

She stated that about 47% of Nigerian youths, roughly 15-18 million of them were into drugs to the extent that in secondary school, out of 2,000 population, it’s difficult to see 500 that were not into drugs abuse, including primary schools.

According to her, the leading cause of this is carelessness on the part of “parents who don’t care about the time their children come back from school and don’t care what they do in school.” Lamenting about the menace, Okoye said: “Unfortunately, the major victims are the rich. You think you have money “Go and check the statistics, most parents that have money are the ones that their children are doing this.

So, parents should be careful of peer group influence. “Train your children, let them know who they are so that no force will pull them away. How do they consider the fact that parents will send their children of junior secondary school abroad to study. “What kind of children do you want to have? These are the problems we’re having in this nation.”