ANTI NARCOTICS BOSS - JAIL TERMS MORE DETERRENT

THE Drug Control Commissioner, Christopher Shekiondo, has proposed
long imprisonment for drug dealers as a way to curb trafficking in
narcotics.

Mr Shekiondo noted in Dar es Salaam yesterday when opening a seminar
for educators and counsellors on drugs and HIV that jail terms could
be more effective than mere fines.

"For example one foreign drug baron was arrested at the airport with
drugs worth 60 million shillings in street value but was fined to pay
one million shillings only and freed," Mr Shekiondo explained. He said
that the current fines were not effective in curbing the problem
because the accused did not feel the pain and went on with the
business as usual.

He explained that it was estimated that more than 250 million people
worldwide were drug abusers, among them more than 162 million used
cannabis. The data from police indicated significant increase in
quantities of drugs seized each year in the country reflecting a rise
in availability of those drugs on streets.

For instance, about 7.3 kg of heroin and 160 grams of cocaine were
seized in 2005 while in 2006 about 92 kg of heroin and 4kg of cocaine
were impounded. In recent years Tanzania has been among countries with
the highest seizures of cannabis in the world and probably the leading
in Africa.