Even though the speakers (majority of them ministers) denied it while speaking at the conference “World Forum against drugs”, the conference I attended in Sweden between 8 and 10 September, the reality is that drugs are on the decrease.
Where have we failed as parents, as a nation, as societies in general? Where did our countries go wrong? Who is to blame if drugs still plague our young and sometimes even adults?
Alas there is no simple answer but I fervently believe that there is someone to blame.
Why do most politicians shy away from fighting drug abuse? Are they afraid of losing votes from drug addicts and drug traffickers? Have these grown so large in number that they've become the means to win or lose an election? Why aren't they making new laws to prevent the addict from using drugs?
Why are our politicians in a sorry state of somnambulism where drug addiction is concerned? Why should a young mother who is a drug addict be allowed to keep her children whom she does not give a hoot about and instead only take care of herself through the abuse of drugs? Why hasn't the Education Minister introduced random urine testing in schools so that drug users could be detected at an early age?
Drug traffickers are the slum of the earth dealing death round the clock. They're even killing little kids now for profit, selling crack and coke at the school gates, getting 12 and 13 year olds hooked on dope. Isn't it about time that laws concerning drug addiction are given birth? For how long are we going to be witness to a shanty world filled with coke and crack heads and heroin addicts pumping poison into their veins, broken down specimens of humanity who'll mug, rob and kill just to get a fix while our politicians keep gaping as our children keep dying one by one?
They have the power to keep drugs at bay especially on this small island but all they do is talk while drug addicts keep being swallowed up in a drug pit. Without a government and politicians on both sides of the House combating drugs it is a difficult task indeed.
Valerie Borg
Valletta