Chronicle Editor
As the country intensifies its war against drug and substance abuse, police on Tuesday released the names of 40 people who are some of the biggest movers of the contraband in the country.
These are people who were poisoning our people by providing them with depressants, stimulants and hallucinogens, narcotics, skin lighteners, body enlargement products, and sex enhancers. All the 40 drug movers have been arrested. Some have appeared in court, been convicted and are already serving their jail terms, while others are still appearing in court.
Forty is a decent number if they indeed were among the kingpins, drug lords at the top of the chain; and not runners. It means that the supply chain has been broken at a very important stage of the illicit chain, at the level of suppliers. It means that their runners do not have anything to peddle anymore and if this is what has happened, users have nothing to take.
That is very important indeed.
Police took a bold decision to name and shame the convicts and suspects.
Bulawayo Provincial Affairs and Devolution permanent secretary Mr Paul Nyoni praised the move taken by police saying it is what key stakeholders resolved to do in their bid to rid the country of illegal drugs.
“Exposing them is a useful tool in dealing with drug and substance abuse. We had a two-day workshop that was attended by various stakeholders and we all agreed that the drug lords should be named and shamed,” he said.
Mr Nyoni however, said the involvement of women in drugs peddling was not surprising because women constitute the majority of cross-border traders.
But given the extent to which drug and substance abuse have grown in the country, there must be many more lords who are still out there moving the narcotics who must be accounted for. They are still damaging, nay, killing our people by supplying them with drugs and other substances. They are making money out of the destruction of a generation, a society.
Therefore, we implore police to continue with the hard work that has resulted in the arrest of the 40.
But as in all policing, police officers are as human as all of us. They do not know everything. Their eyes cannot be everywhere. Their ears are not everywhere. Our people, the ordinary person in the suburbs, in the villages and elsewhere must play a part in the fight against drug and substance abuse. They, indeed are the eyes and ears of police. They know the drug lords because they live together with them, they see them peddling the contraband. We urge our people to report the malcontents to police so that investigations can be carried out, suspects arrested and arraigned, with those convicted being punished severely.
Online Reporter