29 Jun 2022

Botswana is said to have a challenge of rampant underground drug use. 

Speaking during the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking in Gaborone on Monday, the United Nations Secretary General’s representative in Botswana, Mr Zia Choudhury said the use of psychoactive substances was much more common.

He said all other mishaps in health and humanitarian challenges, among them, gender based violence and misbehaving children, had a common background of drug use. 

Drug use, he said, could be associated with a range of health and social problems, including acute intoxication, unconsciousness and unintentional injury, aggressive behaviour and violence, including unsafe sex and sexual violence. 

He therefore said it was important to work against drug use and illicit trafficking to protect the vulnerable. 

Meanwhile, Mr Choudhury said drugs and their misuse should not be stigmatised, saying an epidemic of drug abuse grows because families, communities and religious leaders did not wish to believe it was happening. He said it was high time the government and the nation took concrete actions, because many more people and families were becoming affected. 

He further said there was nothing to be ashamed of or hidden, saying the more families hid the use of drugs, the more “it can be slow and insidious, as has happened in many countries.” 

“Recently, I spoke to a professional who advised me that hundreds of young women and girls are being targeted in Gaborone by abusers and traffickers, for exploitation, and that illegal drugs were one of the methods used to entrap girls,” he said. 

Mr Choudhury urged the nation to work together to tackle the drug problem. 

For her part, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, (UNODC) Executive Director, Ms Ghada Waly her organisation was working on non-discriminatory policy solutions centred around people, health and human rights, underpinned by strengthened international cooperation to curb the illicit drug trade and hold accountable, those who profit from human misery. 

“We cannot allow the world’s drug problem to further shadow the lives of the tens of millions of people living through humanitarian crises,” she said. 

Ms Waly further said there was need to strengthen science-based treatment and support services for drug users, ‘and treat them as victims who need treatment rather than punishment, discrimination and stigma.’ 

She therefore called for commitment ‘to lifting the shadow once and for all’, and give drug abuse and illicit trafficking the attention and action it deserved.  

The International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking was aimed at strengthening action and cooperation in achieving a world free of drug abuse and to help raise awareness of the major problems that illicit drugs pose to society. ENDS