29 Jun 2023

Government is committed to tackling illicit trafficking of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances beyond the region and across the continents.

The Minister of Defence and Security, Mr Kagiso Mmusi said this at the commemoration of the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking 2023 in Palapye Tuesday June 27.

Mr Mmusi said the resolve to stay on course was loudly and clearly sounded by Botswana’s domestication of the United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.

He said the First Lady Ms Neo Masisi’s concerns were justified if the country considered reports on surveys and studies especially where children were affected.

Mr Mmusi said the 2016 Second Botswana Youth Risk Behavioural and Biological Surveillance Survey Report on Tobacco, Alcohol and Drug Use indicated that 36.0 per cent of the students reported having used alcohol, 8.2 per cent of them reported to have used marijuana while 1.4 per cent admitted to have used glue.

“What is even more worrying are statistics from Botswana Police Service that reveal that 83 per cent of drug cases handled between the years 2018 and 2022 involved youth aged between 10 to 39 years,” he said.

Mr Mmusi therefore challenged all leaders, parents and adults to take up their rightful roles to ensure that drugs were prevented from introduction to children and youth.

He said the 2022 demographic data showed that majority of the population was within the youth category, as 42 per cent were aged below 19 years and those aged between 20 and 39 years accounted for 33 per cent.

Mr Mmusi said youth were the window of hope, the present, the future and legacy, adding that it was therefore proper and fitting that like the mother hen, the nation should shield them from all harm and danger.

He said this year’s World Drug Day theme; People First was in consonant with the national Reset Agenda.

 “These priorities are people-centric, and the whole of government is collaborating with non-state actors and communities to ensure that the Reset Agenda is achieved. Implementation of these priorities will achieve positive impact on the socio-economic and political landscape of Botswana, ” he said about the Reset Priorities, 

 He said drug trade was a transnational crime and continued to represent a major source of revenue for organised crime.

“We are also aware that these criminal networks exploit new technologies and networks for the illicit trade,” he said.

Mr Mmusi said efforts to mitigate the supply of and demand for drugs would reduce the country’s transnational crimes, particularly money laundering and human trafficking.

He said it was for that reason that the national security and non-security agencies of government had established strategic and operational cooperation. The collaboration would include engagement of the prosecuting agency to ensure that deserving cases were prosecuted and concluded.

He added that cooperation with regional bodies and agencies was being strengthened for improved coordination and exchange of information and those interventions including improvement of cyber security, would close existing gaps, intercept supply and distribution of drugs, and greatly contribute to prevention.

“We, as countries of the world, may come up with punitive measures and incarcerate those found in conflict with the law to long terms behind bars. We may even adopt capital punishments to deal with those caught on the wrong side of the law, but history has proven that dealing with the problem at the tail-end is not only intricate but is draining economically, socially and politically,” he said.

Mr Mmusi said the government fully subscribed to the tenet of empowering young people to make informed decisions when pressurized to choose between the use of drugs or abstaining.

He pointed out that several measures were started such as the anti-drug campaigns geared towards empowering the youth and the nation against the use of illicit drugs and psychotropic substances.

Different target audience such as schools, churches, social clubs and kgotla meetings were reached to capacitate communities to prevent drug use and addiction, he said.

Mr Mmusi said the “People First” theme underscored the need to prioritise prevention and that was in line with the early 17th century proverb which says, 'prevention is better than cure, which is a health cardinal rule of thumb that acknowledges that it is better and easier to stop a problem or illness from happening than to stop or correct it after it has started.'

For his part, UN resident coordinator Mr Zia Choudhury said drugs could cause illness and death, waste years of healthy life, propagate violence, harm and exploitation.
According to UNODC’s World Drug Report 2023, the latest data indicated that globally, 296 million people used drugs in a single year, while more than 39 million of them suffered from drug use disorders.

He said while precise figures on drug use and trafficking in Botswana were still unclear, the problem appeared to be growing and everybody must be vigilant.

Mr Choudhury said Botswana had brought down the prevalence of HIV/AIDS over the past decades, adding that if Botswana could achieve all that, there was no reason why the country could not address drug consumption and trafficking within its borders in a kind yet firm manner.

“We need focused law enforcement interventions to stop drug traffickers from feeding on misery,” he said. ENDS