The National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) has proposed to carry out drug tests for single ladies before embarking on marriages.

NDLEA Chairman, Mohammed Mustapha Abdalla, made this known on Friday, August 21, while destroying seized illicit substances in Maiduguri.

Abdalla said drug tests may be included in premarital screenings due to the increase in rate of drug addiction among girls and married women.

The NDLEA boss said the target of illicit trafficked drugs which hitherto used to be among the male youthful population was fast expanding to now include teenage girls, young women and old married women.

“As an extension of the proposed Drug Integrity Test Policy for the public servants, the agency is considering partnering with religious leaders to make drug testing a prerequisite for marriages in churches and mosques as the case for HIV/AIDS”, he said.

He said the essence of the event was to ensure that all seized illicit drugs were put out of circulation, adding that 19,234.58 kilograms of illicit substances including controlled prescription drugs, cannabis sativa, cocaine and heroin were destroyed.

It was reported that the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) had reported in 2018 that drug use was found between the North and South geopolitical zones.