Adjudicatory control of narcotic and psychotropic drugs in Nigeria
| dc.contributor.author | Okebukola, Elijah Oluwatoyin | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2023-12-14T06:30:21Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2023-12-14T06:30:21Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2019-03-14 | |
| dc.description.abstract | 45 a party to the three major treaties on drugs, Nigeria is obliged to control the manufacture, use, distribution and possession of drugs. Drug control efforts in Nige- ria rely heavily on interdiction, arrest and the criminal justice system. Adjudicatory control is one of the main mechanisms utilized in the criminal justice approach to drug control. Adjudicatory control is administered by the judiciary at the federal level, with the Federal High Court of Nigeria as the first and primary forum for dealing with drug cases. The Court controls drugs by establishing whether sub- stances are considered to be narcotic or psychotropic under existing laws. Further- more,it processes alleged offenders through a schematized mechanism of arraignment, trial, verdict and sentencing. In this context, the present article reviews 2,506 court cases to analyse the function of the Court as an institution of drug control. The analysis shows, among other things, that there is a wide disparity in the length of adjudicatory processes and sentences unposed for similar offences. Moreover, the possession and use of otherwise licit painhillers are being prosecuted under provi- sions enacted to control narcotic and psychotropic substances.This raises uncertain- ties in drug control efforts in particular, as the drugs that are expressly prohibited are not classified at all, not even according to their degree of harm to society. The restdl is a wide latitude of discretion afforded to executive and judicial officers in dealing with drug cases, judicially, such latitude results in a disproportionate focus on possession of small quantities of narcotics, in contrast to larger quantities. | en_US |
| dc.identifier.citation | Okebukola, E.O. (2019) Adjudicatory control of narcotic and psychotropic drugs in Nigeria | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://keffi.nsuk.edu.ng/handle/20.500.14448/5382 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Department of Public and International Law, Nasarawa State University, Keffi. | en_US |
| dc.subject | adjudicatory control, cannabis, codeine, drug control, emerging drugs, khat, Federal High Court, National Drug Law Enforce- ment Agency, Nigeria, sentencing guidelines, tramadol. | en_US |
| dc.title | Adjudicatory control of narcotic and psychotropic drugs in Nigeria | en_US |
| dc.type | Article | en_US |