Vusumuzi Dube
Drugs and substances are harming a growing number of our people who consume them, even those who don’t but are close to the users.
They are sickening some, killing others. They are wasting users’ time, money and futures. They are destroying households and pushing users into crime.
Indeed, the dangers that drugs and substances pose on our country are multifaceted, dire and long-term thus call on all of us to stand up and seriously tackle them.
We need strong and sustained public education and awareness campaigns, using every platform that can get the anti-drug and substance abuse message effectively across — social media, mainstream media, word of mouth, literature and so on.
We need robust law enforcement as well, right from the household, to the community, the police and the courts to ensure that those who ignore the messages are reported, arrested and constructively punished.
On this score, we note that a Bulawayo man, Gary Bell, arrested in February for moving drugs, was convicted on Monday and sent away for an effective 12 months in jail. He deserved the punishment, perhaps a sterner one. We want more of his type to be arrested and punished for their crimes.
Punishment is important for users and peddlers; so are treatment, counselling, care and rehabilitation.
But for all these elements to work together for good, we need financial as well as material resources. The Government must lead in this respect as it must across the chain. Civil society has to play a role as well by mobilising resources for deployment in programmes and activities to fight this menace.
Just one event led by President Mnangagwa at State House in Harare on Friday raised $3 million for this very important national cause.
We laud him for hosting it and those who made the donations — Cde Scott Sakupwanya donating $2 million, Mr Wicknell Chivayo chipping in with $1 million, Youth Empowerment Minister, Cde Tino Machakaire giving $10 000 and Mr Paul Tungwarara offering $200 000.
One sitting raising millions tells us the sort of resources we can mobilise as a nation to be able to spend on the war against drug and substance abuse.
We are thinking about the President headlining a much larger event to be preceded by a national, even international appeal for support in cash or in kind. Considering the success of the Friday fund-raise, the larger one that we propose has potential to collect much more money and other resources to respond to the national emergency that drug and substance abuse has escalated into.
Online Reporter