Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama says there are some ill informed people claiming crime is on the rise in Fiji but that is not true when in fact violent crime is way down because of the nationwide curfew.
Bainimarama says special response teams continue to undertake special drug operations and they expect them to add on to the over $200 million worth of various illicit narcotics discovered over the last three years
He made these comments while speaking against a motion by SODELPA MP Adi Litia Qionibaravi to establish a special committee to inquire into the impacts of drug-related abuse and make recommendations on how the use of drugs can be reduced.
The Prime Minister says over the past few years, drug crimes have gone up but that is owed in part to the heightened focus on tracking down on such offences and the police are becoming much more efficient and effective in their investigations and arrests.
Bainimarama says that due to the spotlight they are shining on the issue, they expect these crimes to increase before they go down.
He adds the allocation for special drug operation increased from $800,000 to $1 million for the 2020/2021 financial year.
Bainimarama also highlighted that overall crime is on the decline when you compare statistics over the last few years – and last year was the second-lowest year on record for the crime.
While speaking on the motion, Adi Litia Qionibaravi says drug offences continue to increase and according to police crime statistics, Fiji had a 560% increase in drug-related offences between 2013 and 2018.
She says that the U.N Office on Drugs and Crimes has recorded that 200 drug-related cases were recorded in 2013 to 1,400 in 2018.
Adi Litia adds this past year there has been a spike in meth arrests as the police have confirmed that drug-related offences recorded an increase by 55% in 2018.
The SODELPA MP also says that according to the National Substance Abuse Advisory Council, 1,634 cases of drugs and substance abuse in schools was recorded in 2019 and this was an increase in 16% compared to 1,058 cases in 2018.
She says from this, 75% of the cases were recorded in the secondary schools which involved cases of smoking cigarettes, sniffing glue and cases of smoking marijuana.
Adi Litia adds that the National Substance Abuse Advisory Council records in 2018 were alarming as 118 cases of marijuana possession, 11 cases of drug dealing, 95 cases of homebrew, 301 cases of glue-sniffing were recorded in schools.
She says our schools require more counselor and instead of having one per division, one counselor per school must be allocated.
The SODELPA MP adds that Fiji has no rehab centres, no methadone clinics, no additional health service or even a narcotics anonymous meeting for recovering addicts.
Adi Litia’s motion was defeated in parliament.
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