Pubdate: Mon, 10 Mar 2008
Source: Daily Nation (Barbados)
Copyright: 2008, Nation Publishing Co. Limited
Contact:  http://www.nationnews.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/2249

ILLEGAL DRUGS A GROWING CHALLENGE

A Recent Report from the United Nations International  Narcotics
Control Board would have met with mixed  reaction in the Caribbean and
Central America. The  report said that there had been an increase in
national  criminal gangs involved in drug trafficking in these  two
areas, and that the rule of law was being  undermined as well.

There are daily reports of people being caught with  drugs in the
region and this immediately signals that  this is an ongoing
challenge. At the same time,  however, where we are hearing that the
rule of law is  being undermined there must be grave concern since our
  ability to track down the drug traffickers depends on  the efficiency
of our law enforcement. It follows that  if the rule of law is being
undermined drug trafficking  will have an opportunity to further spiral.

Even without focusing on any such breakdown, we are  seeing the
traffickers resorting to the use of  innovative techniques to avoid
being caught, whether it  is drug mules ingesting the drugs for
excretion later  or resorting to "secret" hiding places in luggage or
whatever.

This apart, when local gangs begin fighting for  territory this poses
an additional challenge for forces  of law and order, for it
inevitably includes the use of  guns and sometimes murder.

What, however, gives some hope in the UN report is that  so far not
all the territories in the region under  scrutiny are as steeped, so
far, as their neighbours in  the use of drugs or in drug
trafficking.

According to the UN report, the levels range from one  per cent in
Antigua and Barbuda to 13 per cent in  Aruba. However, where the use
of marijuana is  concerned, the Caribbean alone has a higher rate,
ranging from 1.9 per cent in the Dominican Republic to  7.3 per cent
in Barbados, among countries other than  Jamaica.

Jamaica was classified as the main producer and  exporter of marijuana
in the region and has the highest  rate of use, with ten per cent of
its population,  between 15 and 64 years, said to be using the drug.

Statistics were not given in the Press report on the UN  findings for
St Vincent and the Grenadines where it is  known that much of the
marijuana eventually reaching  Barbados is cultivated. At the same
time the Barbadian  law enforcement authorities have been coming
across an  increased number of our citizens who have been  cultivating
marijuana plants.

Last week more than 3 269 marijuana plants, seized by  the police
between last October and February this year,  were burnt in Barbados.
Other illegal drugs destroyed  included 657 kilos of processed
marijuana, and 115.3  kilos of cocaine.

These are appreciable gains in the fight against the  movement of
illegal drugs through the area but the  local cultivation of the
"herb" shows that there are  those within who are bent on keeping the
illegal drug  trade going, however stymied it might be where supplies
are from overseas, through the crackdown by local law  enforcement
authorities.
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