Opioid Crisis In Nigeria: Drug Abuse, Trading, Smuggling & Corruption

West Africa – and particularly its most populous nation, Nigeria – is fighting with an opioid abuse crisis. Medicines such as tramadol, legally and legitimately prescribed by doctors for pain relief, are also being used in life-threatening doses by millions in search of a repair or a release from poverty, unemployment and lack of opportunity.

People & Power sent filmmakers Naashon Zalk and Antony Loewenstein to Nigeria to investigate how the drug is smuggled, traded and abused, as well as the widespread corruption that follows this illicit trafficking, and the appalling health consequences for those in its grip.