The Ugly Tale Of Tramadol Addiction In DELSU

If there is any hard drug more popular than the well known paracetamol, it is Tramadol. Trams, as it is popularly known is an Opiate known for its euphoric feeling. According to a student, it gives one an elation that no other drug can ever produce, not even the world known Marijuana.

Tramadol is a painkiller used to treat moderate pain. But, the use has gone beyond pain killing treatment and is now been abused by students because of the euphoric sense it offers forgetting the consequences. 

The rate of increase in Tramadol addiction in the Delta State University has surged over the past two years than ever before. Pleading on anonymity, a pharmacist in Abraka says he makes more than One Hundred Thousand Naira on a daily basis selling Tramadol. According to him, Tramadol is even now, more valuable than food to many students. Pharmacists no longer concern themselves with sales of local drugs, as these are mere cover up.

He said: “We deal on Tramadol, Rephnol and the likes because they are what bring the money. Even girls are equally indulged now than before.” So, the question on my mind right now is what has brought us to this conundrum and how can we averse it? 

*Possible Causes*

A moronic sense of rejection is pervasive in most students in our school today. This sense is due to inferior feelings created by the exposure to the society that they are not well trained to face. Not well trained because unlike 2010 and before, those admitted into tertiary institutions *were* matured individuals not suckling babies that our institutes now parade as undergraduates. I am permitted to say that they are too premature for the system and easily influenced due to their childishness.

The school has grown to an extent that most students are no longer clamouring for academic success, rather, they clamour for success that is beyond the offering box of the school. When such defined success is not attained by the students, a sense of inferiority creeps in. Such accrued moronic feeling is thus the trigger to the rampant increase in suicidal cases in our tertiary institutions. Our baby students are trained in such a way that they give in to societal pressures easily. Without a strategic sense of purpose and maturity, they are controlled by whatever holds the society places on them. 

Two out of three students in DELSU are addicted to the opiate, *Tramadol* perhaps, because of the low self esteem they develop in the midst of pals that fake success ahead of them while they are left struggling to climb. Gone are the days when students thoughts are basically academic, the table is now on the amount of success a student makes from the measure of the school modern environment. Speaking of such success as defined by the modern Nigerian students is living beyond the fence, driving the latest car, passing exams without studying, dressing to kill, using big phones, and spending money. When one fails to fit in this space, he resorts to means that distract the mind from frustration. Tramadol gives a sense of self love and forgetfulness. This perhaps is the reason some students go into it, to forget the academic societal influence. 

When interviewed by our team, some of the answers given by some of the students show that every 2 out of 3 students take Tramadol because of low self esteem. 

*PS: The students pleaded for anonymity and on strict confidence with the interviewer.*

*An Anatomy student said*

The drug helps me focus when am worried and am always worried.

*A student from the Faculty of Education*

I use Tramadol to read; it makes me assimilate faster and removes my mind from distractions of frustration.

A Nursing Science student

It gives me joy, that’s all.

A Pharmacy student

It gives me confidence. With the drug I have been able to do things that ordinarily are impossible for somebody like me. 

In addition to the above, the ratio of female to male that are addicted to Tramadol is increasing on a daily basis. Let it be known that some of the students developed such addiction before becoming students of the Delta State University, Abraka. The management of the institution has put in place health facilities to test new applicants of the 2019/2020 academic session for drugs’ addiction. But what about those that are in the system and addicted. I want to say emphatically that 95% of pharmaceutical shops in Abraka are major distributors of the drug because this is the major source of income in drugs emporium.

Written by Daniel, a student of Delta State University, Abraka