Dagga Use On The Rise � Police
Pini Bothoko | Monday November 6, 2017 12:26
According to police reports, the use of marijuana is on the rise as evidenced by the raids made public by law enforcement officers through various media platforms as a way of sending a clear message to potential dealers. Despite the daily airings of the arrests on television, that message seem to be falling on deaf ears, as more arrests of peddlers with large quantities of drugs are a daily occurrence.
Marijuana or dagga, popularly known as sekanka in the street lingo, alleged to be from Mozambique, has found its way into the country. This type of dagga is believed to be stronger and more effective than other types, something that had led to its demand rising in Botswana. Police say their efforts to arrest suppliers are nerve-racking.
Following past efforts to curb drug trafficking into the country, one is tempted to ask why there is still a proliferation of drugs at this alarming rate. According to the police, some locals partner with foreigners from neighbouring countries to smuggle drugs into the country. These drug mules, dubbed tiger line in the street lingo, smuggle illicit drugs through ungazetted entries.
In an interview with The Monitor, Botswana Police Service (BPS)’s director of crime intelligence Nunu Lesetedi said the one drug that stands out as increasing amongst druggies is marijuana. He said on a daily basis they make arrests-80 people at the last count under investigation.
He said that 25 suspects have been charged and 14 cases have being registered, with 12 being those of dagga and two cases of cocaine. Lesetedi says marijuana has since found its way into schools. He expressed a worry that the frequent use of marijuana can adversely affect students’ academic performance and suspect that their unruly behaviour at school stems from the use of drugs.
“The impact of drug use can be more disturbing as it can affect people’s lives, ruin their futures, fuel crime and threaten the country’s economy. Due to excessive use of drugs, some people have turned into street kids and some are mentally disturbed. Others have been laid off their jobs because they have turned into addicts,” Lesetedi said.
Lesetedi said of late they observed that majority of people, especially the youth, were involved in aggravated robberies. He said this left them wondering why these people were committing such heinous crimes without fear. He stated that when assessing the situation, they discovered that something stronger than alcohol, has taken away the fear in those involved in this crimes.
“We will not stop the raids until people stop trafficking and using drugs. The idea is to block the supply of drugs into the country,” Lesetedi said.
Lesetedi revealed that on Tuesday they arrested two Batswana, a man and woman of Molepolole village in possession of 175kg of marijuana at Gamodudu roadblock. He said the duo also had money amounting to R120,000 in the boot of their car suspected to be profits made from selling the said drug.
He said that on Wednesday two men, all Batswana were also arrested with 16 packets of marijuana in their car at Village, Gaborone. “On a daily basis we arrest people and seize large quantities of drugs, especially marijuana something which shows that most of Batswana have turned drugs into a business.
The most common drugs smuggled into the country are marijuana, crack, methcathinone popularly known as cat, madaena, and cocaine to mention but a few. I wish to see a day passing without arresting anybody in possession of drugs, but if we still arrest people. It shows that we still have a long way to go,” Lesetedi said. He made a revelation that at St Louis music festival that was held at Duma FM grounds last Saturday, they were shocked to realise that drugs are consumed freely at entertainment spots.
“People, especially the youth were smoking and using other drugs freely.
Since it was fully packed, we did not want to disrupt the show by making arrests as it might have ended up badly with some people panicking and getting hurt.
This does not mean those people have escaped. We did not want a rowdy situation, but we will find ways in which we can curb drug use at festivals. We might as well start searching people before making their entry, hence druggies should be warned,” Lesetedi said.