Most countries in Africa are no longer just transit routes for illicit trafficking of drugs but also consumers, with emerging trends showing domestic consumption of the drugs has increased across the continent.
This emerged during the ongoing 31st meeting of the Heads of Drug Law Enforcement Agencies in Africa (Honlaf) in Abuja, Nigeria.
Officials from the Interior ministry, Nacada, Pharmacy and Poisons Board and the Financial Reporting Centre are attending the meeting.
Participants heard that the continent has recorded increased cultivation, trafficking and consumption of narcotics, and this has further strained the socioeconomic growth.
Africa is also faced by other challenges, including drought, poverty diseases and corruption.
In March, while releasing the Global Report on Cocaine 2023, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said the Nigerian market tops the list of cocaine-smuggling regions in Africa.
“Based on aggregate reporting to UNODC by Nigeria and other countries on the main cocaine trafficking routes during 2018-21, trafficking of cocaine was reported from Nigeria to 20 countries or territories,” the office said.
It cited countries in the subregion (Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Ghana, Senegal and Liberia) as well as transit countries in Africa (Algeria, Ethiopia and Morocco).
Secretary for National Administration Beverly Opwora said law enforcement agencies need to work with Nacada to address these new trends, including the increased use and abuse of synthetic substances.
“Kenya is actively implementing a two-pronged drug control strategy focusing on demand reduction and supply suppression,” she said.
“This strategy is aligned to the three International Conventions on Drug Control, the Political Declaration and Plan of Action of 2009 and other International recommendations, including those contained in the 2016 UNGASS Outcome Document.”
Nacada acting CEO John Muteti listed some of the strategies the authority is employing in demand reduction.
These include targeted mass media campaigns, life skills empowerment to children and youth, positive parenting and strong families and workplace prevention programmes, alongside treatment and rehabilitation of persons with substance use disorders.
“On supply reduction, Kenya has put in place efficient enforcement agencies and enhanced their coordination with key stakeholders, including those in the criminal justice system.”
“This has boosted control measures, thereby facilitating effective surveillance, enforcement, investigations and prosecution of drug-related offences,” he said.
Opwora highlighted the issues that Kenya wants the forum to focus.
She singled out the increased demand and use of psychotropic and narcotic drugs and their derivatives, as well as the misuse of precursor chemicals.
“The continued illicit cultivation and trafficking of drugs across the borders calls for cross-border cooperation among African states to stem this trend,” Opwora said.
"Globally, there is a strong push for the commercialisation of controlled substances, such as cannabis, for non-medical purposes, an initiative Kenya strongly objects to."
She said Kenya believes drug users require treatment and not discrimination or incarceration.
Muteti said the magnitude of the world drug problem is complex and dynamic.
It calls for heavy investment in building technical and infrastructural capacities that support effective investigations, prosecution and other criminal justice processes, the Nacada CEO said.
“Alongside capacity building, there is need for enhanced international cooperation and collaboration at all levels, since drug control is a shared responsibility,” he said.
“However, all these efforts should be anchored to the three international conventions on drug control.”
Last November, Kenya hosted the 30th edition of the meeting, where important topics, such as drug trafficking trends, new concealment methods and how to detect them, alternatives to conviction and punishment, improving regional cooperation to address the negative consequences of drug trafficking and problematic use were discussed.
Honlaf is a subsidiary body of the United Nations Commission on Narcotic Drugs (CND) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
Kenya chaired Honlaf for the past year and now hands over the chair to Nigeria.