TACKLE DRUG ABUSE

Sir,

We have ignored the fact that alcohol and substance abuse in Eswatini has affected the growth of our economy. The economic stagnation has often been attributed to corruption and looting of government funds, yet here 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 the law.

In the past 20 years Eswatini 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 substances; the poor, the rich, young and old, in families, schools and work.

Drug abuse is a public health issue which we cannot ignore. 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 a funny thing to see how drunk our young people can become not only at month-end but every weekend. Mbabane and Manzini have become drinking dens where you get young children being drunk as hell.

These children are ignorantly without concern for the distress they inflict on their parents. 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. Brilliant minds who, had it not been for substances, would have transformed the country into a First World nation but due to addiction have become immature and unstable.

They avoid responsibility and only seek the supply of drugs, and once they get to the level of addiction they lack self-discipline, will power and ambition. Government needs to be actively involved in the fight against drug abuse. It should introduce a wing that will deal specifically with this problem.
We need places that will go beyond the facilitation of the identification of the problem but places that will also help in the elimination of it.

I am saying our government needs to invest money in projects like these. We have police officers and soldiers, bankers, doctors, school children and many others who have become useless in society due to the drug epidemic.

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.

Ndlangamandla

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