GOVT MUST TACKLE DRUG ABUSE IN SD

Sir,
 
We have ignored the fact that alcohol and substance abuse in Swaziland has affected the growth of our economy. The economic stagnation has often been attributed to corruption and looting of government funds, yet we have a monster, which is insidious in nature and has contributed immensely to the crippling of our economy. 

People have used substances to relieve suffering and change moods and every society has struggled with substance abuse and addiction.
Originally, because of their power, drugs were entrusted to priests or doctors or controlled by law. In the past 20 years, Swaziland has seen a rapid increase in the amount of drug use and the amount of drugs available and today every part of our society is touched by these substances; the poor, rich, young and old, in families, schools and work.

Drug abuse is a public health issue which we cannot ignore. The question that we Swazis need to ask ourselves is what causes drug abuse? How can it be treated? And most importantly, how can it be prevented? Government needs to hire people who are going to tackle the problems associated with drug abuse if we hope to see a decline in the use of drugs.
We need common research tools and definitions that will help us work effectively on this problem.

Our nation is ravaged by drug abuse and we need to wake up to the fact that we have a big problem that needs attention. It is not funny to see how drunk our young people can become almost every weekend. School children have had to drop out of school because they could not cope any more. Instead of working for the country a lot of intelligent minds are caught in the drug web and a lot have lost their jobs because of addiction. Government needs to be actively involved in the fight against drug abuse.

Government should introduce a wing that will deal specifically with this problem. And I am not referring to places like the juvenile school or the Psychiatric Hospital. The Psychiatric Hospital in Manzini can only identify the problem and may even trace the source of it, but it can never help in the elimination of the problem. We need places that will go beyond the facilitation of the identification of the problem; places that will also help in the elimination of it. We have police officers, soldiers, bankers, doctors, school children and many others who have become useless in society due to drug abuse.

Schools and companies do not know how to deal with children and workers who are drug users and they resort to terminating contracts, but that is not the way to go. Let us have a Parliament that will pass laws that will help fight drug abuse, laws that will provide for the building and construction of drug rehabilitation centres with a curriculum and requirement designed to curb the problem. Government can even consider extending the existing rehabilitation centres, adopting their curriculums and using them.

V Ndlangamandla

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