Experts have disclosed that about 27, 000 people have mental disorder in The Gambia and that it is estimated that half of that number have been caused by the use of cannabis. This disclosure was made recently during a symposium on drug abuse situation in the Gambia organised by the National Drugs Enforcement Agency (NDEA).

The World Health Organisation (WHO) representative at the forum, Dawda Samba, said mental health and advocacy programme describes illicit drugs as chemical substance that are taken without medical prescription and have the ability to harm the person's physical, mental, and social health.

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The increasing number of drug-related cases in the country is worrisome, and a cause for concern for religious scholars, state and mental health officials, who all called for a concerted effort to curb the menace.

At a forum convened by the National Drug Enforcement Agency (NDEA) at the weekend on the drug situation in The Gambia, religious scholars among others dilated on the devastating effects of drug abuse.

The forum, which brought together panelist in the persons of Dr Omar Jah, deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of the Gambia, Reverend Gabriel Allen, secretary of the Inter Church/Inter Faith sub-committee of the Gambia Christian Council, SH Bakun, Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) among others, was held at the Kainifing Municipal Council hall in Kanifing.

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The National Drug Enforcement Agency (NDMA) is on the move. Since the launching of operation bulldozer, the Agency has also stepped up efforts to ensure that drugs and drug peddlers have no room in our society.More arrests have been made and even though it appears drug peddlers are changing tactics, the narcotics agency has shown them that they can run but they can never hide.

What is however disheartening is that despite all efforts by the government to ensure that the country becomes drug free, some youths are still actively engaged in this nefarious trade. Almost all those nabbed by the NDEA are youths and recently the Agency revealed that some 300 young people are in their custody for being in position of illicit drugs.

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A Royal Canadian Navy commander says he believes drugs that were intercepted by a Royal Canadian Navy vessel in the Gulf of Aden had links to terrorist organizations.

Cmdr. Wade Carter of the HMCS Charlottetown said in a conference call Friday that the frigate intercepted an illicit drug shipment in the gulf on the west side of the Arabian Sea, north of Somalia.

The commander says about 270 kilograms of hashish was captured on May 7 when a team from the ship boarded a small vessel, though no arrests were made.

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Police Anti-Drug Unit head Godfrey Nzowa and his team deserve praise for their dedication to tracing the movement of illegal narcotic drugs countrywide. The unit impounded a record 210 kilogrammes of heroin and arrested four suspects in Lindi Municipality on Thursday.

In September, they seized 97 kilogrammes of heroin worth Sh4.3 billion and arrested three Tanzanians and an Iranian suspect in Tanga.Two Pakistanis were arrested with 179 kilogrammes at Mbezi in Dar es Salaam in February.

The latest development confirms the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime report that drug traffickers have turned some African countries, including Tanzania, into a cost-effective route for heroin shipment to Europe and elsewhere.

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This week's stories about South African drug mules in far-away countries resuscitated a deliberately forgotten episode of my life a visit to a prison.

In 1998, while employed as a senior writer for a weekend publication, Correctional Services authorities granted me access to a group of women serving long jail terms at Sun City prison south of Joburg.

As I walked through the female section of the prison in my jeans and running shoes, I attracted stares, waves and smiles from female prisoners young and old, black and white with the same magnetic force.

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No margin of error is acceptable when it comes to the death penalty. This is why the gallows, lethal injection, firing squad or any other means of judicial killing should be forbidden.

Morality of executions aside, the finality and the possibility of even the smallest mistake, make capital punishment unacceptable. So it was in Janice Linden's case, where Chinese officials put her to death on Monday after airport authorities found 3kg of methamphetamine in her luggage three years ago.

She apparently never admitted guilt, suggesting that the tik might have been planted. As long as there was a sliver of doubt about this, and any plausibility in her protestations of innocence, she should not have been executed.

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'You must come and see me soon." These were the tearful words of Janice Linden to her two sisters, Nomalizwi Mhlophe and Priscilla Mthalane, during a 45-minute visit at Guandong prison in China, the day before she was executed by lethal injection.

She was not aware that she was going to die and one of the conditions of the visit was that her sisters from Durban were not allowed to tell her.

Linden, 36 was arrested three years ago at the Baiyun International Airport, in China after 3kg of tik (methamphetamine) was found in her luggage.

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China is not alone in imposing the death sentence, but it is by far the most enthusiastic proponent of state-sanctioned executions.

The execution yesterday of a South African woman for drug smuggling added to a number which, while never officially revealed, is widely believed to dwarf the rest of the world combined.

China does not publish statistics on the number of people it executes annually, but Amnesty International estimates it to be in the thousands.

Among those executed this year was Janice Linden of Durban, put to death yesterday after being convicted of smuggling 3kg of methamphetamine into the country in 2008.

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THE execution yesterday in China of a South African for drug smuggling brings the horror of the death penalty close to home.

Janice Linden of Durban was put to death after being convicted of smuggling 3kg of methamphetamine into the country in 2008.

China is not alone in the world in imposing the death sentence, but it is by far the most enthusiastic proponent of state-sanctioned executions.

China does not publish statistics on the number of people executed annually, but Amnesty International estimates it to be in the thousands, though earlier this year the number of crimes carrying the death penalty in China was reduced by 13 to 55. The number of executions every year is widely believed to dwarf those in all other countries combined.

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Like those generals who used to discover that nuclear weapons were not a good thing about twenty minutes after they took off their uniforms and started collecting their pensions, we have had a parade of former presidents who knew that the war on drugs was a bad thing - but only mentioned it after they were already ex-presidents. Now, at last, we have one who is saying it out loud while he is still in office.

President Juan Manuel Santos of Colombia, the country that has suffered even more than Mexico from the drug wars, is an honest and serious man. He is also very brave, because any political leader who advocates the legalisation of narcotic drugs will become a prime target of the prohibition industry. He has chosen to do it anyway.

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Delegates attending a drug abuse conference in Mombasa yesterday came face-to-face with the crisis facing addicts at the Coast General Hospital.

The international and local delegates were shocked to find that the government and other agencies had failed to meet the standards for running a rehabilitation centre.

They lack adequate staff, food and detoxifying medicine for the rehabilitation centre, which was started late last year. Several challenges

Because of the shortcomings, the number of drug addicts seeking treatment at the centre has fallen.

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When the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, in Bauchi State, started its fight against crime, it discovered that 75 percent of youths in the state were under the influence of drugs.

This explains why criminal activities are increasing everyday in the State. Apart from youths who get involved in drug abuse, others engage in the sale of hard drugs because it is seen as a lucrative business and a ready source of income. Some of these drug merchants are highly placed persons in the society. The Agency collaborated with all the security agencies in the State in the investigation, arrest and prosecution of suspects in courts.

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The Story Is Not Only Bizarre, It Is Scandalous. Information From Ejisu Bisease in the Ashanti Region Indicates That the Chief of The Town, Nana Akwasi Acheampong, Has Incurred the Wrath of Teachers In the Town, Following a Severe Beating He Allegedly Inflicted on A Teacher, on What May Be a Trumped-Up Charge.

An Accra daily newspaper reported yesterday that Mr. Francis Carter, a French teacher of the local Municipal Assembly Junior High School, took some friends to a drinking spot in town. While the teacher and his guests were taking it easy, a man appeared and claimed that he could smell the scent of marijuana, known in local parlance as 'wee'.

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The Chairman, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Ahmadu Giade, has called for the implementation of fifteen years minimum sentence for drug culprits in line the NDLEA Act. The NDLEA boss who supervised the public destruction of drug exhibits worth 9.2 billion naira at the Agency's office complex Badagry, Lagos on Friday May 6, 2011 said that stiffer punishment will help to address the drug problem in our society.

Giade noted that the Agency had recorded a giant stride towards a drug and crime-free society with the destruction of 7,970.8182kg of seized and forfeited narcotics in Lagos State. The Event was witnessed by both local and international stakeholders including the Commanding Officers of the Nigeria Army at Badagry, United States Drug Enforcement Administration, the South Africa Police attache in Lagos and other heads of security Agencies.

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It could be the first step in fulfilling the hazy dream of many a reggae artiste.

Marijuana, considered as dangerous as cocaine and heroin in the statute books, remains illegal in all East African countries.

However, this may change. In June last year, Rwanda took the initial steps in legalising marijuana strictly for medical purposes, the first country in Africa to do so.

The proposed law provides that marijuana will only be administered in health institutions to relieve pain or to treat mental problems.

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TWO Patriotic Front officials from Munali Constituency yesterday stormed the Post Newspapers head office half dressed in protest against the killing of a seven-year-old boy in Garden Compound by DEC officers.

PF Munali Constituency Given Lwensha and his publicity secretary Mwenya Matafwali challenged women in the country to condemn the government on the killing of innocent children by police.

The boy was last Tuesday killed while another minor sustained severe injuries after they were shot at by armed Drug Enforcement Commission officers after confusion erupted in the area as they were trailing a suspected drug trafficker.

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THE Anglican Diocese of Lusaka says it is greatly dismayed by the law enforcement agencies' lack of respect and honour for human life.

In a press statement released by the Anglican Diocese of Lusaka, Diocese Bishop David Njovu is demanding an apology from the government over the shooting of a seven-year-old boy in Garden compound on Tuesday by Drug Enforcement Commission officers.

"The people they are supposed to protect are the ones they are killing in cold blood without shame," Bishop Njovu stated.

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When Thieves Broke into Nonhlanhla's Home, They Took Her Most Valuable Possession: Her AIDS Drugs, Which in Urban Legend Are a Key Ingredient in a New Narcotic Called "Whoonga".

Experts say whoonga doesn't actually contain Aids medication, but is rather a combination of heroin, rat poison and other chemicals. That hasn't ended the public perception that whoonga is laced with antiretrovirals (ARVs), sowing fear among people who depend on them for survival.

"I don't know who the dealers are, but I know that they use kids to steal ARVs for them. In the township you see kids stealing the medication of their parents and selling it to the people who make whoonga," Nonhlanhla said.

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Having a conversation with the former boss of the National Agency for the Campaign Against Drug Abuse (Nacada), Mr Joseph Kaguthi, on the drug abuse problem in Kenya is extremely enlightening.

Mr Kaguthi asserts that policymakers, civil society, and the citizenry need to arm themselves with the right information regarding substance abuse in order to assist in finding sustainable solutions.

Everyone concerned should know, for instance, that substances causing the greatest harm to the youth are those that are legally available, not the illicit ones.

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