On Friday, June 26, 2020, MTN hosted the Drug Convos to commemorate the International Day of Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.
The Drug Convos was an online event and featured discussions on the dicey subject of drug abuse and addiction.
Singer, actor, and anti-drug campaigner, David Jones David was one of the several popular faces that were featured on the Drug Convos for a frank discussion on the topic at hand.
If you follow David on social media, we’re sure you must have seen how vocal he is against drug abuse. He never hesitates to use his platform and his considerable talent to speak about the dangers of drug abuse and is constantly warning youths to stay away from it.
Listening to the impassioned way he talks and even sings about the dangers of drug and substance abuse, you might think David has had some personal encounters with it.
However, Folu Storms asked him this question during the panel session powered by MTVBase and his answer cleared it up.
David confirmed that he had never used drugs, but has become an anti-drug abuse campaigner due to how rampant drug abuse is.
He said “It’s right in your face… When you turn to the left, you see someone doing drugs, when you turn the right, you see someone doing drugs.”
According to him, drug abuse has become so normalised among young people, that they express surprise when you tell them the habit is wrong or can have adverse effects.
A 2019 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) revealed that over 14 million Nigerian adults are drug users. It’s additionally scary to think that this number does not even cover the increasing number of teenagers and children who are growing up with a drug and substance abuse habit.
Nigeria really needs to have an open discussion about drug abuse, and it needs to happen ASAP.
Drug Convos is an initiative of MTN Foundation’s Anti-Substance Abuse Programme (ASAP), a multi-sectoral intervention committed to significantly reducing the rate of drug abuse among Nigerian youths.
The Drug Convos was hosted in collaboration with Netng, MTVBase, Business Day, and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.