DA want the narcotics unit back

The DA has called for the narcotics unit to be reinstated after it emerged from a UN report that the country is the key in producing tik and that dagga and heroin use has escalated. (Which is worse. That dagga use has escalated or heroin? 80% of the SAPS's time is spent on cannabis. That leaves 10% for ALL the other drugs, including heroin and tik. Chasing the less harmful of the drugs while studiously ignoring the worst ones has consequences. Heroin is a dead end death drug. Cannabis hasn't killed anyone in the last 20 years in South Africa. Priorities have consequences and the consequences in Cape Town have been disaterous. A large proportion of Cape Town's magistrate's criminal court roll is drug related, with court 23 hearing drugs exclusively - all day long every day and all the other courts hearing matters from within their jurisdiction.)
 

The UN World Drug Report, released on Thursday, says dagga is the drug most people seek treatment for in Africa.

SA produces large amounts of tik, which is smuggled through the southern African region.

According to the report, more than 1 percent of the SA population uses the highly addictive drug, but 64 percent of people seeking help are in rehab for dagga use.

Mike Waters, DA spokesman on social development, says he will write to Minister of Social Development Bathabile Dlamini asking her to take urgent steps to promote, within the cabinet, the reinstatement of the narcotics bureau. (Where does Mike Waters get his drug advice from? If you need drug advice ask your doctor if you're really stuck. Just ask.)

He would also like to see an anti-drug unit within SAPS, separate from the narcotics bureau, which would specialise in anti-drug patrolling and investigations as well as tightening restrictions on bail for drug offences.

Waters also wants drug master- plans for all government departments and a strategy review committee. (The National Drug Master Plan is a JOKE. None of the numbers are remotely correct and even contradict each other. What is the "plan"? There is no "plan" other than to prohibit EVERYTHING. To have a DRUG FREE SOUTH AFRICA. That's right folks - DRUG FREE. No drugs at all. This truly unrealistic aim has resulted and hundreds of thousands of arrests and criminal convictions since 1998.)

He says anyone convicted on a charge of drug dealing should not be eligible for bail if arrested on the same charge. (Bail is a right granted in the constitution. If you want to stop people from getting bail you'll have to change the constitution. Man hasn't thought of that but he's going for it now. Whatever happened to the presumption of innocence?)

According to the report, dagga and heroin are the two main substances contributing to demand for treatment for illicit drug use in Africa, with 64 percent of all treatment for drug use reportedly provided for disorders related to dagga use.

Sarah Fisher, executive director of the Substance Misuse, Advocacy, Research and Training (Smart) organisation said: “Codeine is an opioid and sold over the counter in SA; we have no idea how many people are having problems as a result of this.” (We have no idea. NO IDEA... how big this problem is.  Or what the actual problem is.)

While tik used to be imported into the countries of southern Africa, now it is being produced here and smuggled to neighbouring states.

In 2010, an increase in heroin users was observed in south Asia and in east and south-east Asia in particular, but experts from many African countries also reported a perceived increase in the use of heroin. (The reason for this is that we have no statistics to work off. The CDA actually produce none.)

This suggests that a relative shift of the burden of the global drug problem from the developed countries to the currently developing countries will continue over the coming decades. (from IOL)

There you have it folks. The drug war. Soon to be intensified in a neighbourhood near you. The war is lost. Sometimes you need to know when to advance and sometimes you need to know when to retreat. 

The law is wrong. The law truly lacks nuance when it comes to drugs. You need to have taken the drugs and know the law to really know this. So take it from me. The law is wrong. It is irrational to not have a law against public drunkness while arresting people for cannabis. 66% of pedestrians killed are drunk. More than 50% of non natural deaths are related to alchohol, yet it is legal and oh so freely available.

The MRC has admitted that no one in South Africa has died from cannabis in the last 20 years. People have been killed by the police because of cannabis and tens of thousands of people have criminal convictions and records because of it. Unfortunately the DA have embraced the war on drugs because it gets them the votes of parents on the flats. Tik is a massive problem and it's going to continue getting worse if the policy remains unchanged.  Tik has infiltrated the higher end of society all the way down into the townships, all the way into the shacks. Ultimately both parties in power have failed the people by not being honest about drugs.