With N200 and knowing the “right” person to talk to, you can get high on something fancy in Jos, the Plateau state capital. The city where a percentage of Nigeria’s superstars were raised is fast becoming a hotbed for substance abuse — P-Square, MI, Ice Prince, Jesse Jags, Mikel Obi are among the stars who grew up in Jos. But in present-day Jos, diazepam, rohypnol, superdrol, exol 5, D5 (also known as yellow gold) and tramadol are easily available on the streets of the city.

The city boasts of an unceasing supply of the drugs for ever increasing clients. While drugs such as exol 5 and D5 are used to treat Parkinson’s disease and bipolar disorder, rohypnol is used to lessen depression caused by the abuse of stimulants. Diazepam is used to treat alcohol withdrawal and depression. However, these off-the-counter drugs make it to the streets with ease.

“Even if pharmaceutical stores have it, they don’t give it anyhow. It is based on prescription, but they have some guys that settle them. You can’t get it in a pharmacy. You might get them in the pharmacy but they don’t give it out anyhow. They have some settled guys that don’t misbehave so they give them,” Abdulkadir Hassan, a dealer, said.

“I want to show you two types — this is what they call rohypnol; this is the diazepam. This (rohypnol) is N2,000 per sachet while this (diazepam) sells for N50 (each).”

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