Dr Musa Aminu, born in northern Nigeria, overcame substance use in his youth and decided to help others by pursuing an undergraduate degree in human physiology, to understand how the brain works; and a master’s in pharmacology and therapeutics to understand how drugs affect the brain.
His substance use problem started before he completed high school.
“What began as ‘fun and games’ with cigarettes and alcohol quickly became a habit. I started using cannabis, and thereafter felt more comfortable trying other drugs. I found myself struggling to stay in school at the age of 18,” he said.
At university he went from being an ‘A’ student to struggling to pass.
“My drug use became my number one priority. I needed money to purchase drugs. That became the root cause of my problems with my family. I found ways to get money from my mother for my drug use, until she could no longer trust me.”
Dr Aminu said he would even spend his tuition fees to purchase drugs.
“Eventually, my mental and physical health began to deteriorate. I dropped out of university and had a near-death experience due to drug use. That was when I knew I could no longer continue this path. I sought help, and my family checked me into a drug rehabilitation centre for four months.”
He decided to devote his life to helping others get out of “this dark hole. That was when I committed to never going back to drugs,” he said. Looking back, Dr Aminu said, “drugs create a false sense of relief, making problems seem solved. However, upon waking, you will often find them doubled in size. This isn’t a solution; it’s merely temporary escapism.”
On completion of his master’s degree, he joined a United Nations office focused on drug and crime efforts to address drug use, prevention, treatment and care.
Serendipitously, Professor Chris Ajonijebu, who headed a research group at the Department of Human Physiology, at Mandela University, had been working on the neuroscience of addiction. He heard about Dr Aminu’s passion and offered him a doctoral position.
Dr Aminu said his PhD research examined health safety concerns regarding the impact of cannabis legalisation on the adolescent brain and potential maladaptive behavioral phenotypes associated with cannabis use.
His secondary supervision was with Professor William Daniels from the University of Witwatersrand and Professor Hajeirah Davids from Mandela University.
Dr Aminu’s study showed that Delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the addictive compound in cannabis, causes addiction-like behaviours in experimental animals, despite claims about the safety of cannabis compounds. THC exposure may also have neurocognitive effects. Animals that received THC performed relatively poorly in memory tests.
He also observed that cannabidiol (CBD), another cannabis compound associated with medicinal claims made about cannabis, produces more THC-like effects when combined with THC, a finding that further questions the claimed safety of cannabis.
Dr Aminu made a novel discovery that cannabis addiction is linked to an epigenetic change involving miRNALET7D in the hippocampus, a region involved in memory. “These types of changes lead to silencing of genes involved in intelligence quotient that control learning and memory processes, as well as genes involved in depression, drug craving and relapse in substance use disorder,” he said.
His work aims to inform more evidence-based policies around cannabis legalisation and encourage more scientific research into claims around the therapeutic benefits of cannabis, while weighing risks versus benefits.
Referring to his doctoral studies journey, he said, ”Your experiments may not go as planned, your results may not go as hypothesized, your paper may be rejected many times, but you just don’t give up.
"By not giving up, you learn to think about ways to get through the obstacle, or around it. This unquestionably builds your character. And this is one of the not-so-obvious perks of doing a PhD. It makes one formidable in dynamic and difficult situations.”
Sober for 15 years, he has learnt more about the power of resilience. “To anyone out there battling addiction, please do not give up on yourself. Talk to someone, seek help. But understand that addiction is a brain disease, and you are not a failure. There is help there …”
Such was Dr Aminu’s tenacity and resilience that he became one of 10 young African thought leaders selected to participate in the SHANGO FELLOWSHIP, hosted by the African Alliance, which works with partners, including the Wits Reproductive Health Institute and the South African Medical Research Council.
It aims to nurture young African thought leaders, particularly in promoting equity in research and development in Africa.
The fellowship is focused on decolonising African research and the development of medicines. Dr Aminu hopes to secure a postdoctoral research fellowship in mental health / neuroscience.
His main supervisor, Prof Ajonijebu, who is now at the University of Johannesburg, said Dr Aminu’s work “contributes meaningfully to our understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms underlying Cannabis Use Disorder and stress-related conditions, while also opening promising avenues for future therapeutic development.
"In a rapidly evolving global context where cannabis policy, mental health and addiction science increasingly intersect, his doctoral research is both timely and impactful.”
He added, “Musa Aminu represents the kind of scholar our universities and societies need: scientifically grounded, socially conscious and committed to excellence.”