MARIJUANA: THE SMALLER THEY ARE IN FIVES

There's word on the streets and from the users of marijuana that the
five dollars packs are getting smaller compared to those in recent
years. The same pack that gave you three bong rolls just months ago is
just a mere two matchstick size rolls - with a street value of two
dollars and fifty cents each.

The fall of the fives quantity has raised a few questions, eyebrows
and critics among users who are customers of these wholesale streets
dealers making an easy living among the countries addicts.

On the other hand, the bigger picture to look at is what it is that
really causes the fall of the fives. Two issues had come into
question. The first being the long arm of the authorities and its
community policing that had scrutinized both dealers and its farming
settlement and had minimized its transactions. For the past two years,
the Fiji drug unit had taken its most aggressive approach towards the
rise of trade seeing dozens of drug busts across our main islands in
Vanua Levu and the Viti Levu highlands. A well organized team of
workers engaging in its most successful initiative towards the fight
against drug, community policing and awareness outreach programs
seeing village elders and chiefs heeding the desperate call of
eradicating this man made phenomena hitting our streets today. Some
had even called for stricter laws and severe sentences against the
movers and shakers of the trade while some called for the return of
the death penalty as done by their paramount chiefs in the far north
regions of Vanua Levu.

And leading the war and its community policing unit is ASP Waisea
Tabakau who organizes the deploring of its units around the country
from his tiny office at the operation center at the Central Police
Station in Suva. "People are saying that it's their source of living
and life is hard already as it is being so far from town areas and
markets. And they fork out more transporting their farm produce rather
than the tiny pack that can be carried in a toilette bag with a higher
buying price. That we understand but it's against the law and that is
where we draw the line," ASP Tabakau said.

Today he added, the drug unit with its community policing services is
proud to make the announcement that we have cut down crime rate to 50%
beginning from the year 2006 until now.

Today he said not one farm is beyond reach and all had been
identified.

"Though drug problems and its farming can never be totally wiped out,
but we can control it for a country with a population of less than a
million people with $50million drug busts for three years. Now that is
an alarming rate."

Crimes he said have connecting issues. "With one comes another like a
chain of reaction. To fight this, we have to work from its roots." And
dealing with the roots comes by the unit's response time and solving
issues at its brewing point.

"Whatever the situation or how small it seems, we detect and solve it
right there before it gets out of hand. This has made our work more
effective where we monitor movements of people in their communities,
in villagers with village headmen. It's the reason why our patrol unit
can pull you up on the street making searches and asking question or
even dispersing small gathering of crowds, even on the streets. And
has made our work 62% more effective than just working on reports."

The second being the rise of its users that makes them the most sort
after people in the country where the quantity no longer matters but
the addictions of the body that needed to be satisfied.

Talking to a few street dealers who spoke on trust of anonymity said
the rise in its price and the fall of its quantity is not an act of
ripping off their customers but of the law that has now bridged all
entries around farms and known pick up areas cutting their supplies to
almost zero profit. So causing the fall of the fives quantity.

"Every one of us is aware of the long arm of the law that has become
the killer blow to our businesses. Its the biggest blow to our
industry where farmers are no longer moving the stuff on larger scale
amounts but in smaller packs that is either rationed among four or
five of us when making our pick ups from markets areas or trucks that
deliver them to us," they said.

One known as the daredevil of the trade by his movements had seen him
track through the island dozens of times with a bottle of water,
chocolates and smarties disregarding all dangers and threats known of
the jungle but to keep his business rolling. He had done it so many
times where the jungle itself had become his best aid and hid him when
the need arises and at times so cruel where the only thing that
separated him from throwing in the towel was the thought of his wife
and children and his responsibility as a father.

A couple of times he encountered the worst of situations in the jungle
where he had to crawl and claw his way out of the dark without any
light using the darkness to evade all confrontations both by humans
and animals. The scars on his body always had a story behind it. Just
months ago he nearly lost his life when he jumped from a height of
about 50 feet to evade a pig hunter with his fierce pack of dogs that
derailed him off his tracks without food but just the bottle of water
and about two hours from the upper regions of the Lami areas where his
pick up was arranged.

Bruised and badly beaten he had lost track of his movements and
tracking signs by trees and mountains and darkness was falling fast.
In fear and panic of the dogs that could be still heard in the
distance left him no choice but to remain by the water where the dogs
would miss his scent. Cold, hungry and nursing a sprained ankle it
took him another day and a half alone in the middle of the jungle
where he had to crawl at times to reaching his pick up point.

"People can be skeptical when they hear my story but I am a kid that
grew up fighting for what I had to get. From the lollies and the
simple thing that makes a home the most loved place to a child, I had
to go out of my way and get it through every means like a scavenger. I
flunked every tests during my high school days for I was more worried
about what to eat than the future to be built through my education",
he said.

To them, the packs of fives are the only means of making a living and
all other relating issues comes second. What must go on is the
struggle to make a living, whether legal or under the table and the
costs has to be right.

Like the Daredevil, another by the name Cody (not his real name) had
served a couple of sentences on drug related offenses. The longest a
10 year sentence which he served 6 years and 8 months from 1998 to
2004. Organizing his business from his home along the Nausori Suva
corridor said the days of making a 100% profit is gone. And with it he
said drops the quantity. Once, he said we could just make our way to
the farms and pick up our stuff. "Not now," he said.

After saying that he turned to a car slowing down as he went back to
his business. An exchange of words and a smile took place in less than
five seconds and a tiny pack wrapped in a silver foil reaches its
customers on the streets.

Marijuana

Cannabis, also known as marijuana or marihuana, or mariguana, or
ganja, is a psychoactive product of the plant Cannabis sativa, or more
often, Cannabis sativa subsp. indica.

According to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, humans have been
consuming cannabis since prehistory, although in the 20th century
there was a rise in its use for recreational, religious or spiritual,
and medicinal purposes.

It is estimated that about four per cent of the world's adult
population use cannabis annually and 0.6 per cent daily.

The possession, use, or sale of psychoactive cannabis products became
illegal in most parts of the world in the early 20th century.

Since then, some countries have intensified the enforcement of
cannabis prohibition while others have reduced the priority of
enforcement.