By Binta Jaiteh
Honorable Yankuba Sonko, Minister of Interior has called on National Assembly members to sensitize their constituencies on the dangers of drugs.
“Drug abuse is rampant and abusive to our youthful population and it is a serious concern to the government,” he said. He cited section (15,1) function of the drug law agency Gambia stages to sensitize and educate the public in particular the youths about the dangers of misusing drugs.
“As a policy the public relation office unit of drug enforcement law agency is upgraded to a direct trade of drug demand reduction. This decreases the supply and demand reduction at the same level of priority the following interventions are undertaken,” he added.
“I urge all honourable members to sensitize their constituency about the danger of drugs to complement the effort of Gambia DLEA as they play a critical role in this crusade. Most of the abuses are in our domestic homes and not in the eyes of the security institution. This challenged everyone in making sure that we report any suspicious drug activity in our respective areas,” he said.
He added that a lot of things have to be done at the level of the institution and also with the members of the public.
Meanwhile, he said funding has been already secured from ECOWAS Commission for renovation of the structure in Bijilo to be used as a rehabilitation centre.
He continued: “There are weekly talk-shows over five radio stations and periodically other radio stations. There is also a school sensitization program in various schools between January and March. The sensitization program formed part of the strategic intervention in the national drug law strategy 2019 to 2023.”
He went on that the sensitization has a great impact in reduction of drug and trafficking because most of them know, “if they are involved in drugs there is a high penalty lie ahead of them due to that initial discouraging most of them do stay away.”
“Security services have conducted an overall assessment of the security situation in the country, one of the areas is drug control and we have a plan to fix certain equipment at different locations, especially the borders,” he stated.
