Tighten the law on drug dealers

The Monitor Editor | Tuesday January 31, 2023 06:00

Our youth are perishing; their once hopeful bright future is going down the drain; all because of illicit drugs.

It is very easy to blame the addict, but it is not as simple as that! Drug dealing is a very lucrative business for some shameless people amongst our society and as such they have come up with tight strategies on how to push their business.

Drug addiction is bad, and while the individual on drugs sometimes might have been the one who decided to experiment, it is, however, not always the case. Let us for take an example of someone who is in the business of selling clothes or lingerie, they advertise and find ways of enticing customers to buy. Unfortunately so do drug pushers.

People who sell clothes, lingerie, cars, food on the streets or big restaurants and street vendors do legitimate business, but the scum of the earth who have decided that their bread and butter is going to come from destroying people’s lives make it a point that they get as many people hooked on drugs as possible to push their filthy business.

Sadly, the business of selling drugs in our country is booming because it is easy money that even some leaders of our society who should be concerned about these kinds of issues are often fingered as the ring leaders. Our government unfortunately does not seem too concerned about the issue, because while there has been talk about establishing rehabilitation centers for addicts for the longest time, nothing has been done as yet! The problem, however, is growing in leaps and bounds every day, and these drugs continue to make it into our country without any hindrance.

The use of illicit drugs is a threat to individuals who use them as well as to their families, because continued use alters someone’s thinking capacity. The use of illicit drugs can lead to a number of behavioural problems, which include paranoia, aggressiveness, hallucinations, addiction, impaired judgment, impulsiveness, loss of control just to mention but a few. Just last week there were reports that a young man shot and killed a taxi driver and it was also alleged that the shooter is someone who is heavily addicted to drugs! This is a wakeup call that we have a problem on our hands. This is not the only incident; there are many others, which go unreported. Parents are terrorised by their own children for money they do not have, only for the children to get a fix. This is a plea to government to do something about this problem.

Our children are dying! Drug lords and drug pushers need to be given hefty sentences and hopefully in the long run, we will be able to clean our streets. Gov’t, please build proper rehab centres for your citizens, the situation has long spiraled out of control! Lock all drug lords and dealers in the slammer and throw away the keys!