Daniel Otera
A sombre mood settled over the Edun community in Ilorin West Local Government Area of Kwara State on Saturday, as officers of the state fire service recovered the body of a 43-year-old man who reportedly jumped into a well after the Eid-el-Kabir prayers.
Identified simply as Kareem, the deceased was believed to have been under the influence of Synthetic Cannabinoids, a potent psychoactive substance widely known in street parlance as Colorado or Colo, before taking the fatal plunge at Ile Alapo, Edun.
While emergency officials responded promptly to a distress call received at 10:29am, the man was found lifeless. His body was later handed over to the Nigeria Police Force, pending formal identification and claims by relatives.
The Kwara State Fire Service confirmed the development in a statement on Saturday, describing the circumstances as tragic and preventable.
The Director of the service, Falade Olumuyiwa, lamented the increasing cases of drug abuse and urged residents to avoid substance misuse.
Though not unique to Kwara, the incident draws attention to a growing but underreported trend: the spread of Synthetic Cannabinoids among young people and low-income communities across Nigeria.
Concerns about the rise of synthetic drug use, particularly Synthetic Cannabinoids commonly referred to as Colorado, have been mounting across Nigeria in recent years.
According to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Africa has witnessed a significant increase in the seizure and circulation of new psychoactive substances (NPS), with Nigeria emerging as a hotspot for consumption and trafficking. In its 2021 assessment, the UNODC highlighted that seizures of synthetic NPS across the continent rose from under 1 kilogram in 2015 to over 828 kilograms by 2019, indicating a troubling upward trend UNODC.
Synthetic cannabinoids like Colorado are typically unregulated, chemically engineered, and significantly more dangerous than natural cannabis. Their effects include hallucinations, psychotic breakdowns, self-harm, and in extreme cases, sudden death, making them particularly hazardous in low-income or poorly monitored communities.
The danger of these substances has also been reflected in domestic enforcement actions.
In 2024, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) revealed that 929 individuals were arrested for drug-related offences in Kwara State alone, with seizures totalling over 1,455 kilograms of cannabis and other substances such as tramadol, methamphetamine, and crack cocaine The Nation.
Nationally, the agency recorded more than 18,500 drug-related arrests and seized over 2.6 million kilograms of illicit drugs within the same period Guardian Nigeria, underlining the widespread nature of the crisis.
Despite not being one of Nigeria’s most populous states, Kwara continues to feature prominently in national drug abuse statistics.
While the exact motive behind Kareem’s action remains unclear, concerns about rising drug abuse in Kwara State particularly the growing use of synthetic substances like ‘Colorado’ have gained urgency.
According to the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), over 929 individuals were arrested for drug-related offences in Kwara in 2024 alone, with more than 2.6 tons of illicit substances seized. Among the substances confiscated were cannabis, methamphetamine, codeine-based cough syrups, and synthetic drugs such as ‘crack’ and ‘Colorado’.
A previous National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) survey, conducted in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, revealed that 14.4% of Nigerians aged 15–64 had used a psychoactive substance in the past year.
Though the report did not provide a breakdown by state, the national figure has fuelled concerns among public health advocates about the scale of the crisis across regions, including Kwara.
In Ilorin and surrounding communities, the prevalence of synthetic drug use, often cheap and easily accessible, has been linked by authorities to erratic behaviour, mental health disorders, and a spike in self-harm incidents. However, without localised data, the full scope of the challenge remains poorly quantified.
What makes synthetic cannabinoids particularly dangerous is their ability to cause rapid neurological and behavioural breakdown, often within minutes of consumption. In many low-income communities, these drugs are sold as flavoured smoking products or mixed with traditional herbs, blurring detection.
Substance abuse is often intertwined with underlying mental health conditions, economic hardship, and lack of professional support. Yet, in Kwara and many other states across Nigeria, access to proper mental healthcare remains severely constrained.
In 2024, health experts in Kwara raised fresh concerns about the limited availability of government-run rehabilitation centres, calling on the state to invest more in drug treatment and counselling services.
According to reports, only three functional government-owned rehab facilities currently serve a population of over 3.6 million people, highlighting the scale of unmet need.
Healthcare professionals, including psychiatrists from the University of Ilorin Teaching Hospital (UITH), have warned that the state’s mental health burden may worsen if services remain centralised in teaching hospitals. They advocate for better integration of mental health care into Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) to ensure grassroots access.
Additionally, data from the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA) shows that only 650 medical doctors including general practitioners are available to cater to the entire population of Kwara State.
The shortage of qualified mental health personnel, combined with societal stigma and economic hardship, has pushed many residents to seek help from unregulated spiritual homes and traditional healing centres, where professional diagnosis and treatment are lacking.
The lack of support structures not only worsens addiction but increases the likelihood of tragic incidents such as suicides, psychotic breaks, and accidental deaths.
Kareem’s death, though still under investigation, has reopened public concern over easy access to synthetic substances and the social silence around drug abuse in Nigeria’s heartland states.
With Eid celebrations meant to be a time of joy and reflection, the tragic event at Ile Alapo serves as a grim reminder that the country’s drug crisis is no longer limited to urban slums or big cities.
