IMPACT OF DRUG ABUSE IN FAMILIES, COUNTRY

ILLEGAL activities are very costly because of the dangers that people put
themselves through when conducting them.

Just as a simple village woman in Buka illegally brews jungle juice to sell
for an income, drug traffickers in the business deal with a lot of money,
but where does this money come from, who or what is the source of this
money that is used by drug users.

That money may come from a number of sources, from the salaries of a senior
public servant or a businessman who doesn't know his child, wife, or any
other dependant is a drug abuser.

Or it can be from the pockets of a father, a family man who abuses drugs
leaving less for his family's use or none at all. It can be from illegal
sale of drugs (marijuana), as a handout from a wantok, from stealing, shop
lifting, prostitution or another illegal means.

This means the economical impact is mixed-up with additional crime or crime
related. The loss of money in the family and local community means lower
production and a drop in the quality of life where even the non - user is
affected.

The obstacles of drugs

There are many obstacles that hinder a country from reaching development
that it aspires to achieve.

A country may have many resources but if these resources are not utilized
properly, development will be hindered.

Drugs are a hindrance to development

At Bomana jail in one year, there were 115 people imprisoned for being in
possession of illegal drugs a. To keep those prisoners in prison from three
months to two years cost the tax payer K206,000. Mind you, this is only one
person. What about ten people or 20 people for that matter.

In 1997 the Port Moresby General Hospital, Correctional Services,
Magisterial Services and Laloki Psychiatric Hospital had 1,677 people with
drug cases. It would have cost the State an estimated total K6,592,000 from
three months to two years. This is money that could have been well spent on
worthwhile services to the nation.

Papua New Guinea is an agricultural country. It has coffee, copra, tea,
cocoa plantations in the coastal, highlands, islands and mainland areas.
PNG sells these commodities overseas for a revenue for the national budget.

Over the years in PNG, drugs have interfered with the productivity of these
commodities. The Wari Iamo Report in 1992 estimated that 123,000 households
in four provinces cultivated marijuana and generated K56 million. If people
are producing and cultivating cannabis (marijuana), then they are less
occupied in cultivating coffee, cocoa, tea and copra. For one thing,
cultivating cannabis involves far less work than cash crops such as coffee,
cocoa or copra.

There is virtually no real work involved in producing cannabis and when
compared to coffee or copra, people are tempted to put drug production
first, because there is not much labor involved.

If 123,000 households are involved in producing cannabis instead of copra,
coffee or cocoa, this is bound to have an effect on the economy because the
economy then will become directly dependent on copra, coffee, tea and cocoa.

The impact of drugs on the economy of a country is so enormous that many
countries around the world have given up the fight against drug abuse.
Papua New Guinea is already paying a heavy price because it has not
effectively tackled the problem soon enough.

The impact of drug abuse on our future is one we cannot neglect to mention.
Our future lies in our children, in the youth today, and sadly these are
the ones that are feeling the major impact of drug abuse.

While all these may seem negative, the truth is, there is simply no
positive impact of drug abuse on any society or a nuclear family for that
matter.

DRUG ABUSE MUST BE PREVENTED IN PNG!