By Kruah Thompson
President George Weah has called on all Liberians in and out of the country to join the fight against illicit drug and substance abuse.
Delivering a speech at the official launch of the National Bicentennial in Paynesville Monday, 14 February 2022, President Weah said whenever he reflects on the issue of disadvantaged youth, he feels disappointed as president of Liberia.
“I see it to be very much disappointing, the way in which the young people of the country are engaging into drugs at an early age,” President Weah lamented.
Liberia is seeing a growing population of young people that are engaged in the use of harmful substances and narcotics, with most of them abandoning their homes to sleep in ghettos, cemeteries, and in other makeshift structures.
A lot of them have become threats to national security, evident by a recent tragedy the country endured when a group of disadvantaged youths who are also known here as zogoes, invaded a Church crusade, leading to the deaths of 31 victims and wounding several others.
There are also continuous attacks against other peaceful citizens that are carried out in the streets almost every day by these drug addicts, sometimes for money, cell phones or other valuables.
But President Weah suggested that in order to save the present population of young people and the future generation of the country from self-destruction, a very serious decision needs to be taken, adding that the problem of disadvantaged youth and their disdainful attitude currently in the country cannot be ignored.
He said the issue of illicit substance abuse is evolving gradually on a daily basis and must be tackled head-on now by all officials and citizens of the state.
