That’s just
the craziness, that’s just what addiction can do to you. Travel for 6 days to a
place that you have never been to before, hanging around the bunks where people
smoke weed and end up spending more than ₦60,000 because you want to buy a weed
of ₦2,000. It’s a very ugly experience.
Clickhealth: You mentioned weed, crack, are there other types of hard
drugs?
Charles Dakole: I think that
of the smoke, for instance, Indian hemp. The Indian hemp has different
treatment and the different treatment come with a different name. We have “SK”
which is “Strong Skunk” loud which is normal Igbo (Indian hemp), Baba green.
 |
Marijuana (Indian hemp) |
That one is
for smoke, we also have for the drugs, and we have Tramadol, Exol, T5, Rochi
(Baba blue) Slow, Cocaine, Heroin, then for the syrup, we have Codeine, Nutolin,
Nicodeine. For the gums, we have Patch
tyre, Sniffing smell from the pit toilet, Smoking the white side of lizard
faeces- I haven’t done this one before but I have seen people who do it. It’s
just crazy, its madness.
Clickhealth: There is this one they call “Mkpuru mmiri” in Ibo, I don’t know the
name in English, what is it called?
Charles Dakole: That one is
loud. There are also modern names to some of those things like crack, loud..; because they want to hide it from law
enforcement so they have street name
Clickhealth: how are these drugs distributed, how do you get them?
Charles Dakole: They sell it
in chemists but they don’t sell it to people who are not potential smokers. We
know ourselves you know. If you are going to get it for the first time, you would
be refused unless you go with someone who is recognized. The person is going to
introduce you to the seller; otherwise they would even pretend as if nothing of
such happens around the area.
Clickhealth: So you don’t have people who dispatch it?
Charles Dakole: Yeah, yeah, yeah, there are
peddlers. One of the things that make them peddle majorly is because they have
a double increase in the price. Or triple. They buy it very cheap and they
bring it down to your doorstep. You can call them on phone because you have
their contact.
Sometimes
too the peddlers are situated in locations-in the bush or uncompleted
buildings. Some people even have it in their houses but you wouldn’t know. I
had a senior colleague who does it. He calls them and they come to submit it in
form of parcel to his house and he pays them.
Clickhealth: How about cost?
Charles Dakole: Right now they are very expensive. Tramadol, like in
2014/16/17, goes for ₦20 per tablet of 125mg but right now tramadol is very
scarce and if you find it, it would be going for between N1000-N1500. For
nicodeine and nicotine, some people are trying to maneuver that quantity into
different substances. Now it is difficult to get from the chemists as it used
to be because of checks by the government or the law enforcement agencies, but
it’s everywhere.
Clickhealth: At what point did you begin to see the need to withdraw from
drug?
Charles Dakole: I withdrew because my family, my
precious family, a family that I started preciously – I lost my wife, she left
because she just couldn’t bear it. And I was not responsible again. I was
making good money; but everything was being taken for granted, nothing seemed
to be too serious in life for me.
The first
thing my mother noticed was that I began to get very dirty, not clean again. I
have dirty stains on my teeth, my lip becoming black; I began to get tired
about life.
I think at
that point, that’s when I started having calls from my mother. Sometimes I
don’t go home, sometimes for 3-4 days, because I had no idea about it. I would
buy cloth, wear it and throw away the old one.
That’s the
point I started noticing that something has actually gone wrong with me. I
don’t shave my beards, I don’t cut my hair, I don’t iron my clothes, I don’t
polish my shoes; same thing is applicable to my friends, I noticed they were
not looking good.
I was afraid
to go to where people are. Friends that you started with growing up would start
asking, “What’s happening? You are not looking fine” You actually know you are
not good but you are good.
That’s when
I noticed something has gone wrong with me and I started seeking for help.
Clickhealth: And how did the help come?
Charles Dakole: Yeah, I was in the house smoking,
and then a Pastor walked into my house, a young Pastor, and saw me smoking. We got
talking and he asked why I was into this kind of stuff. He told him “nothing”.
He said he needs me to come to the church on Friday. He gave me ₦10,000 in an
envelope and asked me to use this one for my transportation and offering. It
was when I got to the church that he told me that I have a problem.
I know it
was a problem already and I have been wanting to leave it because I am a
completely different person from the person I used to be. I took pictures and I
saw my pictures, I lost money, I lost my wife, so I needed help.
He told me
how to come to the church. It was on Friday and I actually did. On Sunday
morning I took my bath, went to the church, and he led me to Christ. He got me
enrolled in one of those schools of ministry, Dominion City, Life Camp chapter,
Abuja.
That’s how I
got enrolled in that School of Ministry and every day I just kept confessing
it, recalling it, recounting it, for a period of six months.
When I was
done with the School of Ministry I never returned to drug again. And that’s why
I could tell you precisely that I stopped smoking, taking drugs on May 10,
2014.
Clickhealth: It could be seen that stopping it was not easy; how did you
find it?
Charles Dakole: It hasn’t been easy while I
stopped. In my dream I still see myself smoking it. I think stopping it
completely both in the physical and spiritual realm was 2019; and it was
immediately after my baptism.
From the day
I got baptized up till now I have never smoked in my dream, I never smoked
physically; I have never touched weed or whatsoever since that time. So I have
been liberated, free, and happy.
Within this time that I stopped was the same time that I now knew what happened
***The Interviewee can be contacted directly with his phone number +234 8137824948