There is no specific drug rehabilitation centre in Fiji dealing with the increasing number of people using hard drugs.
Although Saint Giles Hospital has been dealing with victims of substance abuse, Deputy Secretary for Defence and National Security, Lieutenant Colonel Ilai Moceica says Saint Giles Hospital is not specifically looking at substance abuse.
According to Moceica, 100 of more than 500 patients were admitted at Saint Giles Hospital between May 2017 to April 2018 due to substance abuse.
Speaking at the Narcotics Workshop in Suva, Moceica says statistics reveals that the most common substances abused are marijuana, methamphetamine, cigarettes, kava and alcohol.
Moceica says the Fiji Police can only do so much in such efforts to addressing the drug problem in Fiji.
He says stakeholders need to holistically view this as a national problem and this forum is rightfully mandated to come up with strategic solutions that would not only allow enforcement agencies to curb the illicit use of drugs and eradicating cultivators but to commit our resources and time to this worthy cause.
Moceica says the 2018 World Drug Report states that the markets of cocaine and methamphetamine are extending beyond their usual regions, which more psycho-active substances are being synthesized and available more than ever before.
He says in the Pacific context, Fiji only has to look at it’s neighbours to see how the illicit drug trade is having a devastating and often deadly effect on innocent lives.
Moceica also says that life is a precious commodity that government officials are entrusted to protect and it is the responsibility that they should not take lightly.
