Former fighters say taking the addictive opioid was essential for launching assaults. Could tackling its illicit trade cripple Boko Haram attacks?

Adamu Musa remembers clearly the first Boko Haram offensive in which he took part. It was about a week after he’d been abducted along with a dozen other boys in Gwoza when he was ordered to join a mission. He was to be part of a group of militants that would attack a nearby community and kidnap more fighters. Musa and the other young boys were tasked with chasing men who tried to escape.

Before the assault, and all the others that Musa would later take part in, each of the boys was forced to take several tablets of Tramadol.

“Everyone took it before leaving the camp. Even if there was nothing else in the camp, there was always Tramadol,” says Musa, who escaped from Boko Haram in the middle of the night over a year ago.

Tramadol is undoubtedly the drug of choice for Boko Haram with several former militants reporting its widespread usage. Nigeria’s anti-drug agency routinely intercepts hundreds of millions of tablets of the drug, much of it believed to be destined for the insurgency in the northeast. Tramadol is an opioid primarily used for pain relief, but when taken at higher doses it can produce similar effects to heroin.

“Whenever we took Tramadol, nothing mattered to us anymore except what we were sent to do,” says Musa. “Because it made us very high and very bold, it was impossible to go on a mission without taking it.”

https://globalsentinelng.com/2019/03/27/if-you-take-tramadol-away-you-make-boko-haram-weak/

Dey will look for something else to get high on... Tramadol, codeine , refnol, soakaway, gum, lizard poo

They can still have access to tramadol, it's just that they will have to pay more for it because it's no longer cheap. Tackling the drug it's not going to make it scarce, it's just going to shoot up the price, because they will still find ways to bring it in no matter what.