Editorial: Liberia sits on a time bomb that is poised to wreck the future of this nation if concerted actions are not taken now. The issue of drug trafficking and substance abuse risk denying this country and its people a reliable future, as thousands of youths in communities across this nation are hooked to dangerous drugs.
The current head of the Angie Brooks International Center and former foreign minister Olubanke King-Akerele has urged the Government of Liberia to “stop the ridiculous talk” and take concrete action to end trafficking of dangerous narcotics into the country and substances abuse that are ruining the youths.
She notes that some big hands are behind the sale of illicit drugs in Liberia and young people are being targeted as clients. Liberia is being used as transit center for trafficking of illicit substances to other parts of the world.
In 2021, a female security officer who suspected a lawmaker of carrying dangerous drugs in his car was intimidated, harassed and threatened into silence after she appeared before the House of Representatives to testify. She was coerced to revert her statement that a member of that august body was caught in the traffic transporting drugs.
Also last year, the hands of the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency (LDEA) was caught in the cookies’ jar in Grand Kru County when several LDEA officers confiscated a consignment of dangerous drugs from a woman and repackaged the substances for sale.
Former Minister King-Akerele, who spoke at the celebration of International Women Day on Tuesday, March 8, 2022, further lamented that women are involved in the sale of drugs to young people in communities, robbing them of their future potential.
That women and mothers would take pleasure in selling illicit substances to children, some as old as 13, 14 and 15 is not just disappointing, but quite frustrating. These are heartless women, whose actions can be equated to nothing else but murder.
They leave their victims useless and sometimes lifeless, after leading them to addiction thru substance abuse. A major social crisis looms over this nation if sustainable programs are not put in place to fight drug and substance abuse
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Liberia risks losing her next generation of men and women to drug abuse. It is unbelievable that substances are also sold even on school campuses!
We must join hands to act now: parents, community and religious leaders, school authorities and government to avert a looming social calamity and save the next generation of Liberians from self-destruction. https://thenewdawnliberia.com/stop-the-ridiculous-talk-ex-foreign-minister-cautions-government/
