Online Reporter
Stephen Mpofu, Perspective
TODAY’S Saturday column is a resolute call for an intensified campaign, a veritable blitzkrieg, designed to leave peddlers and consumers of illicit and dangerous drugs forever regretting their actions.
The fact that mental health institutions across the country are overwhelmed by victims of ongoing drug and substance abuse, as reported recently by a local radio station, compels every Zimbabwean citizen to rise and participate in cleansing our otherwise Christian society from the scourge of drug addiction, a menace that has our country virtually reeling.
Mutoriro appears to dominate as a favourite among consumers while other drugs such as mbanje, bronco, chlorpromazine and guka, wreak havoc in a more insidious manner.
Some of these health-destroying drugs are smuggled into the country from neighbouring nations to the east, south, and north of Zimbabwe by unscrupulous merchants, determined to profit regardless of the devastating toll their merchandise exacts. These peddlers can rightly be described as the devil’s messengers.
Tragically, and unbeknownst to its avid consumers, mutoriro is known to cause impotence in men and infertility in women. Therefore, mutoriro enthusiasts should not expect to have children, with divorce a near certainty when couples fail to demonstrate their procreative abilities.
The police have apprehended numerous culprits in their efforts to rid our society of this drug scourge, but much more needs to be done. Intensified searches at our border posts and airports are essential to curb the inflow of drugs by smugglers.
This calls, as we have previously stated in this column, for closer cooperation and co-ordination between the police and the general public to root out purveyors and consumers of these dangerous drugs and substances, which are inflicting greater damage on the health of our people than the impact of illegal western economic sanctions on the economy.
As suggested by this communicator in previous discussions, there is a clear need for urban communities to establish anti-drug patrols to intercept smugglers and users of these dangerous substances, to which unemployed youths without occupational skills easily fall victim, consuming the drugs in the misguided belief that they alleviate their anxieties about their poverty.
Furthermore, the police, in collaboration with rural communities, should establish roadblocks or human barriers around businesses at growth points to prevent infiltration by drug traffickers in those areas, thereby protecting the local population.
Naturally, lengthy prison sentences for smugglers and peddlers of illicit drugs should instil a fear of the law in offenders, deterring them from their destructive trade.
If well-co-ordinated, the anti-drug activities outlined above will be enshrined in historical records for future generations to reference, should they also face the dangers of drug abuse.
To reiterate, unemployed youths out of school should strive to acquire skills for a better future, rather than simply complaining about their joblessness and blaming employers.
