Editorial: More than we think of the drug abuse situation

Statistics from the Ministry of Health putting the number of At-risk youth or drug-addicted youth in Liberia at 47,917 is nothing but an understatement of a situation that has become a national crisis and center of discussion in all quarters of the country.

Parents, guardians and institutions across Liberia are lamenting a serious situation that threatens the next generation of Liberians and yet, authorities at the Ministry of Health wants the nation to believe that youth already affected by drugs are less than 50,000.

We vehemently disagree with this figure, for Monrovia alone, not to talk of Montserrado County, has more than 50,000 drug-addicted youth. They are in communities and ghettoes across the city needless to talk about the entire county or the remaining 14 counties.

Substances such as cocaine, heroin, marijuana, tramadol, and kush, among others, are being smuggled into Liberia daily thru our porous borders, and even official port of entries as was experienced at the Freeport of Monrovia on two separate occasions with cocaine valued nearly 150 million United States Dollars!         

Assistant Minister for Curative Services at the Ministry of Health and Head of the Technical Working Group for the government’s At-Risk Youth Program, Dr. Gborbee G. Logan, revealed at the Ministry of Information’s weekly press briefing last Thursday that a total of 47,917 at-risk youth are across Liberia.

Dr. Logan explained that after President George Weah launched a US$13 million rehabilitation program in 2022 for drugs-addicted youth, a committee was established with a goal of reaching at least 500 youth per year, but revealed that recent weeks have shown an alarming increase in complaints from At-risk youth, particularly in Montserrado County.

His explanation clearly validates our position that the figure presented at MICAT press briefing last week is nothing but belittling the issue because drugs are being distributed across all 15 counties at a very fast pace that we imagine by well-organized syndicates that include both Liberians and aliens.

Even school campuses are not being spared by the network of unscrupulous individuals trading contrabands, particularly narcotics to our youth.

Come to think of this: The smugglers, distributors and dealers are ahead of whatever programs and steps that government intend to take to addressing the drug situation because they have collaborators among security forces of our country that man our borders. The security forces should be going after those corrupting the future our youth thru drugs, but the reality proves the contrary.

We must be sincere with ourselves as Liberians, particularly as government, and stop politicking with our youth.  The Government of Liberia must muster enough courage to face the bleak future that lies before the next generation and work overtime in addressing the drug situation as a national emergency than paying lip service.