Andrew
Frustrated and distraught parents all around the country have of late taken to social media to give heart wrenching tales of their children who have fallen prey to the drug craze which is sweeping through our communities.
Unemployed youths and even schoolchildren have been so hopelessly ensnared by this egregious vice which we have always known to be the scourge of the Western world.
According to reports, the drug of choice is Crystal Meth, short for methamphetamine, which is known colloquially in the local language as ‘Guka’or ‘Mutoriro’. The drug is potently addictive and its effects so devastating on the mind, body and soul. Parents are watching helplessly as their children have turned into skeletal zombies, living on the fringes between life and death. Some have developed mental health issues, while most are now incontinent. They have become “ the walking dead”.
What boggles the mind is why authorities have inexplicably let this situation get so out of control. They have seemingly given carte blanche to the purveyors of this garbage to infest our once drug free country.
As these faceless drug lords and their enforcers seek new, virgin markets for their virulent product, our beloved Zimbabwe has been targeted. Our border to the south has been exposed for what we have always known it to be — hopelessly porous. To make matters worse, our law enforcement establishment is either irredeemably inept, or have been corrupted to the core, or both.
How else can one explain that this deadly menace is getting a free pass through our ports of entry?
If our government and its security agencies do not quickly act to arrest this situation, the sad reality is that the very fabric of Zimbabwean society is facing an existential threat. Forget about the favourite political bogeyman in the form of western sanctions. Forget about the threat of recolonization from neocolonialists and their local surrogates.
Forget about the presence of ISIS affiliated terrorists wreaking havoc in northern Mozambique. Forget even about the credible threats of climate change induced droughts and their concomitant famines.
This drug menace poses a real, immediate, clear and present danger to the very existence of Zimbabwe as a nation. And its here, right now!
Zimbabwe has one of the most elaborate security architecture in the region, including being host to the SADC regional University for Defense and Strategic Studies. It is a sad indictment, that non can see nor fathom the violent precipice that this country is hurtling towards.
What is coming is not some esoteric unfolding event, but is as light as day, and one need not be a prophet to see it. Most of these addicted youths have already been thrown out by their parents, and are now roughing it up on the streets, while some have found succor in the various drug infested dens which have mushroomed all over town. Some are even reported to be living in graveyards, among the dead.
It is only a matter of time before we start recording deaths due to overdose cases. They started off by stealing and selling anything and everything they could lay their hands on at home, just to feed their habit.
Now alone, broke, and homeless, they are now prime targets for recruitment into drug peddling gangs, roaming our streets and neighbourhoods. Our youths will be the pawns to be used in the bloody and deadly turf wars that are a natural consequence of this type of moral decadence.
And they will be armed to the teeth. As they become hardcore addicts, they will turn into hardcore criminals with absolutely no conscience, and will be prepared to do anything for ‘ the next fix’. All dangerous crimes, from gun violence; to rape; murder; car jacking; assassinations; kidnappings; robberies; you name it, will increase exponentially.
Unfortunately, no one will be safe, not even the elite who have built themselves these obscenely monolithic structures for homes, which we see dotted on hilltops all over northern Harare. There high security walls, security guards, bodyguards, and alarm systems, will not be able to keep this enemy at bay.
This is the genesis of the loss of peace and security for all the citizens of this country. Ask anybody who has ever been to Juarez in Mexico, or to south east Los Angels, or to the southern suburbs of Chicago.
They will tell you what the end game will look like. Closer to home, ask what life is like on the Cape Flats of South Africa. Given our hoards of unemployed youths and the glaring socioeconomic disparities in this country, let’s brace ourselves for a very bumpy ride ahead. Call me an alarmist if you like, but I’ve seen first hand the effects of drugs and drug wars in the places I have mentioned.
The government and all its relevant agencies must act now to avoid this impending maelstrom. Among other measures, I would suggest that a state of disaster is immediately declared, and all necessary deployments, be they human, financial, technological, be urgently effected in all our towns, along our borders, and at all our ports of entry.
Personnel need requisite training, and drones and sniffer dogs must become part of the equation. But trying to stop the inflow of drugs is not enough on its own.
What is needed is a multi pronged approach where all stakeholders get involved. The police must chase down and apprehend every known and unknown drug peddler.
The Legislature must start now to propose and enact stringent laws that are commensurate with the threat we face as a country.
In the Middle East and the Far East, anyone caught smuggling or dealing in drugs faces the death penalty.
The Judiciary must come to the party by dedicating special courts that deal swiftly and decisively with this menace, and lock up all offenders without showing any mercy.
Government, civil society groups and NGO’s must come together and establish rehabilitation centres that are affordable, to deal with those already affected.
Parents, schools, and church organizations must help in instilling better moral values to our children.
And media organisations must play their part by mainstreaming this festerous predicament in all their programming and publications.
The alternative of doing nothing, or doing something half heartedly is just to ghastly to contemplate.
As these drug pushers are left to operate unhindered, they will establish themselves physically within our society and will become financially stronger.
Once that happens, they will start coopting rogue elements within the security establishment and within our body politic. Already there are allegations to that effect, being banded around.
This has happened in much better resourced countries and with a much lower corruption profile than ours.
If we let this take root here, the problem will become so entrenched and intractable to the point of morphing into a generational curse. The time to act is now while there’s still time.
Zimbabwe is at war, and this is one fight we dare not lose.
Online Reporter