“It is important to note that methamphetamine [MKPURUMMIRI] is a highly addictive synthetic stimulant. Stimulants are a class of drugs that speed up messages travelling between the brain and the body. In other words, it has potent central nervous system stimulant effects. And like some psycho-active drugs like cocaine, MA can be snorted, often smoked or mixed with water or alcohol and sip and can be injected. You can now understand why you see those plastic cans of drinks and pipes around people so far caught.🥱. Mkpurummiri can be white and odorless in powder form and can also be found in a colorless crystal form. Let’s trace the origin a bit.
“ORIGIN
“Amphetamine was first made in 1887 in Germany. But Methamphetamine which is more potent and easy to make was developed in Japan in 1919. Because the crystalline was soluble in water, it made it a perfect option for injection.
“MA went into wider use during war II and was actually given in high doses to Japanese kamikaze pilots before their suicide missions. The record has it that after the war, the abuse by injection became rampant and the surplus supplies kept for military use became available to the public. By 1970, with its spread, the US government made it illegal. By 1990, when Mexican drug merchants set up large laboratories in California, smaller private labs started springing up in kitchens and apartments earning it another name “stove top”. It was from then, it spread across states in America into Europe, through the Czech Republic, and later into Asia. So you can see that the story no be today…
“MKPURUMMIRI AND NIGERIAN MARKET
“People argue that the illicit market has been more than a decade in Nigeria with kitchen-like labs in places like Lagos. But stories had it that it was around 2010-2016 that the illicit drug took a new turn in Nigeria. Some drug syndicates brought in some Latin American experts to help them set up large-scale meth labs with similar characteristics to those found in Mexico in Nigeria. One of the industrial super labs that were set up, was said to have the capacity to produce 4000 kg of meth per week. In fact, when NDLEA raided the site in 2016, they arrested 4 Mexicans from Sinaloa State and 5 Nigerians.
“Moreso, the growth of meth market in Nigeria was made readily easier by the availability and accessibility of precursor chemicals such as ephedrine. Precursors are chemicals that are essential to the production of a controlled substance. It has legitimate uses and is legally used in a wide variety of industrial processes like medicines, perfumes, plastics, etc. What also amplified the trade was the high cost of procuring cocaine in the global market such that by the same period in question, Nigeria became a hotbed of a global network of drug merchants producing and exporting this drug from Nigeria to Asia and some other countries.
“By 2019, 309 kg of ephedrine was seized in Trans Ekulu Enugu and Festac Town Lagos. Of interest was that within this period, these types of drugs belong only to the rich. Some others make do with smoking weeds “nke fa ma anya ya” and its equivalents. What actually happened that the drug began to change hands from the rich to the poor and even to people who hitherto could not have afforded it? So much of a drug movement. A movement that took years to penetrate into city centers and has as it is, stabilized into reasonable corners called “bunks”.”
Ejefonye Ojinnaka, Director ECOSANCTI-The Ideal Environment Initiative
photo credit: news-medical.net