Vanguard Newspaper discusses the mkpuru mmiri madness.
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MKPURU MMIRI: The drug destroying Igbo youths
November 20, 2021
….It leads to madness, fingered as booster to unknown gunmen
…NDLEA fights back, community leaders subject addicts to public flogging
By Vincent Ujumadu
MANY Igbo communities are currently facing the dangerous effect of Methamphetamine nicknamed by the youths as Nkpuru Mmiri which translates to seed of water.
Many youths are into it but God knows that seeds of water cannot be dangerous drugs. Picture of the drug probably informed it’s nickname.
Mkpuru mmiri is a crystal narcotic hallucinogen that is capable of destroying a person mentally. It is estimated that 75 percent of the users in our society are adversely affected. And they have become a burden to their families and communities.
According to drug literature, methamphetamine is a powerful, highly addictive stimulant that affects the central nervous system. The crystal form of the drug looks like glass fragments and is chemically similar to amphetamine, a drug used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy, a sleep disorder.
Addicts can take methamphetamine by smoking, swallowing, snorting or injecting the powder that has been dissolved in water or alcohol. The “high” from the drug starts and fades quickly, people often take repeated doses in a “binge and crash” pattern. In some cases, people take methamphetamine as a “run,” giving up food and sleep while continuing to take the drug every few hours for up to several days.
Methamphetamine affects the brain adversely. It increases the amount of a natural chemical called dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is involved in body movement, motivation, and reinforcement of rewarding behaviors.
The drug’s ability to rapidly release high levels of dopamine in reward areas of the brain strongly reinforces drug-taking behaviour, making the user want to repeat the experience.
Taking even small amounts of methamphetamine can result in the same health effects as taking cocaine or amphetamines. These include increased wakefulness and physical activity, decreased appetite, faster breathing, rapid and/or irregular heartbeat and increased blood pressure and body temperature.
Several questions concerning this scourge are in the public domain. One of the questions is whether Nkpuru Mmiri is sourced locally or imported into the country. Another question is, if it is imported, from which of the nation’s boundaries did they come in? If it is locally produced, where in Nigeria is it produced?.
The National Drug Law Enforcement headed by Buba Marwa yesterday tried to answer these questions in their reaction which contained some details about the drug. The agency, through their spokesman, Femi Babafemi, sent the following as their reaction:
“Mkpulu Mmiri is the Igbo slang for Methamphetamine or Crystal Meth, a very dangerous illicit drug. It looks like Ice or white chalk crystal and sometimes can be blue. That is why the users sometimes refer to it as “ice.” It can be dissolved in water.
It was developed in Japan in 1919 and grossly abused during World War II when it was issued to pilots on a suicidal mission called “kamikaze.” After the world war, it was briefly used as a medication for depression and for controlling obesity, but it was quickly abandoned and banned thereafter, especially from the 1970s. Meth is categorised as Schedule II (i.e. “drugs with a high potential for abuse, with use potentially leading to severe psychological or physical dependence”) by the International Drug Control Conventions.
Since the 1990s, the production of crystal meth has been hijacked by Mexican drug cartels and they came into Nigeria to set up laboratories in 2016.
It is a very addictive stimulant that renders the user hyperactive and prone to destructive tendencies which at the extreme do not exclude suicide or homicide at the slightest provocation and without a feeling of remorse.
As a stimulant, it has powerful euphoric effects, similar to those of cocaine. Meth typically keeps users awake, depriving them of sleep. Its use and abuse also carry acute health risks including high blood pressure and cardiovascular-related illness.
Aside from being unable to sleep and being violent, users exhibit anti-social behaviours arising from paranoia and hallucination. The drug takes a toll on the physical look of its users. It typically makes them look older and their faces prone to acne. Sometimes, excessive use leads to damaged gum and teeth, commonly called “meth mouth.”
What is most frightening is that meth addiction is one of the most difficult to treat, because no drug can cure it, except by behavioural therapy, which at the moment is not readily available in the country.
Since the launch of the Offensive Action campaign early this year, NDLEA has recorded significant seizures of kilograms of the drug. Likewise, the Agency has located and destroyed not less than 18 meth-producing laboratories in the country in the past few years.
Culled from Vanguard November 20, 2021.
