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The Government is making a practical and effective difference between drug suppliers and dealers on one hand, and the users and abusers of drugs on the other, with all dealers now being tried in court, no matter how much they were selling, and most likely to go to jail.
This division of those involved in drugs is important, and can lead to drastic falls in rates of drug abuse when coupled with the rest of the programmes and actions being tailored and coordinated in the national drug strategy.
The Cabinet has reaffirmed that all suppliers must go to court, even for selling a single twist of mbanje, and the option of a deposit fine in a police station can no longer even be considered.
This will help dry up the supply of drugs, and deter those who might be tempted to start dealing to stay clear, Despite all the efforts to make our prisons centre on rehabilitation, training and reform, no one wants to spent time in them.
By the end of the third week of last month, 809 suppliers had been convicted in court this year, Cabinet was told this week, and the efforts to disrupt and end the supply chains was continuing.
But both the scale of the problem, and the growing efforts to deal with it, were revealed in other statistics. In the 25 days between October 30 and November 23, a total of 1 559 people were arrested for drug offence, 122 for supplying and 1 447 being end users. Those 122 were wheeled into the courts.
The other side of the strategy is that the end users, the people who buy and abuse the drugs, are usually given the option of a deposit fine, which is fair enough to a degree.
The problem with deposit fines is that there is no database of those who accept a conviction by admitting their guilt and then pay the assessed fine.
In theory a drug addict could be arrested twice a week for several months and keep paying the same minor fine, when in fact the situation is a lot more serious.
This is different from the procedure when people are taken to court. The convictions, sentences and any special conditions such as suspensions for future good behaviour or suspensions for performing community service are recorded.
So when you turn up a second time before a magistrate and convicted the whole history is revealed.
This is when magistrates always start off with a higher sentence for a repeat offender, since they did not learn their lesson the previous time, then add in any suspended sentence on condition of future good behaviour, because the future behaviour was bad. The convicted person is also less likely to get the option of community service.
So as the new policy of ensuring all arrested dealers go to court, coupled with the growing efforts to arrest dealers in the first place, means that there are growing disincentives, to put it mildly, for a dealer to return to the business.
We think that the time has come when the same records are needed for users even if they are allowed to pay deposit fines.
Most police stations should have access to the internet for all sorts of reasons, and if that is not yet the case then it would not cost much to ensure that, a computer and a wi-fi connection.
The data on an arrest and deposit fine could then be entered into the drugs database and the next time that user appeared under arrest the data could be retrieved.
Sometimes this might mean the user as a repeat offender goes to court. Sometimes it might mean that the repeat user can be identified as an addict, and then given options of entering rehabilitation programmes as an alternative.
Perhaps we even need to have magistrates able to give users sentences that combine a fine, a suspended jail sentence and condition of suspension being their entry into an anti-addiction programme.
The user could pay the costs. After all they have some money since they were buying drugs and that is something they can now save on.
Another approach might be to still allow a user to pay a deposit fine, but only after they fill out a form detailing where and when they bought the drugs they were found using, and some identification of the dealer, at the very least a physical description.
This will help the police build up their intelligence of the commercial drugs underworld in each area, and given them leads on how to bring it down.
The report to Cabinet by the National Committee on Drug and Substance Abuse shows that not only is the war against drugs becoming more effective, with more drugs interdicted and seized, more dealers and users arrested, but that activity is widening in both prevention and in dealing with those who need help.
Defeating drugs in Zimbabwe is never going to be easy. It is not easy in any country. But by having clear and consistent policies, having a co-ordinated campaign on several fronts, and learning all the time about what works and what does not work we are likely to do better than most.
So far we have been fulfilling these fundamental requirements, and that is showing. Now we can intensify our campaigns.
Online Reporter