Pubdate: Sat, 03 Aug 2002 Source: Daily Nation (Kenya) Copyright: 2002 Nation Newspapers Contact: (254-2)213946 Website: http://www.nationaudio.com/News/DailyNation/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/868 GIVE THE DRUGS CZAR TEETH When former Provincial Commissioner Joseph Kaguthi was brought out of retirement to co-ordinate a new National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (Nacada), it was assumed a new resolve would be injected into the fight against what could become a national scourge. Mr Kaguthi, after all, was well-known as a tough, efficient, decisive and no-nonsense administrator - just the kind of person required to lend muscle and steel to such an important campaign. One and a half years later, there is little to show for Nacada. True, Mr Kaguthi has been much in the news. He spearheads numerous anti-drug awareness campaigns and has volubly taken the message wherever he can. Only yesterday was he chief guest at such a function. And he announced a new initiative - to declare war on tobacco and alcohol advertising. Nacada, said he with vim and vigour, would support lawsuits against companies promoting tobacco and alcohol. Yet it seems that, by and large, Mr Kaguthi's bark is more scary than his bite. Apart from expanded awareness campaigns, street processions, seminars and workshops, there is little to see in what would be expected of a national drugs czar. That, maybe, is not Mr Kaguthi's fault. Legally and administratively, Nacada operates in a vacuum. Though operation from the President's Office may give it a certain clout, it does not help that the agency has no teeth of its own in terms of a well-defined scope, resources and statutory backing. Nacada's terms of reference include to co-ordinate activities of the individuals and organisations involved in the campaign against drug abuse; to conduct public education campaigns; to curb drug abuse among the youth and to initiate treatment and rehabilitation programmes for addicts. Yet, for lack of funds and staff, it can hardly discharge even those limited functions. Most glaringly, it apparently has no role to play in helping direct the campaign - nay, war - against the production, trade and distribution of narcotics. That is an important function that cannot be left to the police alone. There should be a national agency to co-ordinate the entire anti-drug effort. A Nacada, properly empowered, could play that role. Otherwise it remains a toothless bulldog. - --- MAP posted-by: Beth