Fiji is far from being alone in dealing with drug and substance abuse problems - Curr

New Zealand's High Commissioner to Fiji Jonathan Curr says Fiji is far from being alone in dealing with drug and substance abuse problems, other neighboring countries such as Samoa, Tonga, and New Zealand are also affected.

While speaking at the National Dialogue titled “Substance Abuse – Let’s Talk About It! Finding a Fijian Solution!” organised by Leadership Fiji with the support of the Ministry of Defence at the USP AusAid Lecture Theatre Curr says much like Fiji, New Zealand sees the value in taking a cross nation approach to limiting the harm of drug use.

Curr says there are many ways to tackle this issue.

He says he acknowledges that there is potentially more work that we need to do together to support harm and demand reduction, to support those whose lives have been harmed by drugs and help build resilience in the community so that the demand for drugs is reduced.

Curr further says that combating drugs and the harm they cause will need everyone's cooperation.

Curr also says in the first six months of operation, the Dog Detector Unit at the Nadi International Airport was instrumental in intercepting 13 hard cases of drug cases worth more than $6.1 million.

Curr says there have been many more seizures since then by the Dog Detector Unit.

He says they are in the process of designing a major new initiative between Fiji and New Zealand Police to develop a new Policing Cooperation program.