ABUJA, NIGERIA BANS COUGH SYRUP

Cough syrup with codeine has become a high black-market item in Nigeria where one pharmaceutical company stated that they can sell one million cartons a week.  Since alcohol is banned in Nigeria the people have gone to getting high on cough syrup with codeine.  They mix it with soft drinks and consumed by students.  Codeine addiction is at epidemic levels in the Northern part of Nigeria where unemployment is high and its easily available on the black-market.  In the states of Kano and Jigawa they have reported that over 3 million bottles of codeine cough syrup are sold every day.  The highly addictive codeine is a pain killer, if taken in large doses can cause organ failure and schizophrenia.  Nigeria’s drug enforcement agency has in recent days confiscated approximately 24,000 bottles.  The codeine addiction has become a big problem across all of Africa.