LAW-ABIDING residents of Taba’a settlement in central Honiara have shown the way forward to tackling the illegal home-brew drink kwaso.
Through their close collaboration with the police, thousands of litres of kwaso and dozens of marijuana plants were confiscated by police last Saturday.
Kwaso and marijuana are scourges to our community.
They contributed in a big and serious way to community disruption and mayhem.
In north Malaita for example, youths closely related to each other recently killed one of their own during a kwaso-induced fight.
Parents and close relatives of the alleged aggressor have to be expelled from the community as a result of the incident.
A similar incident occurred in East Makira last year.
The hostility and differences that existed between the two parties concerned was just sorted out last Saturday at Nareke community.
Kwaso brings nothing good to a community.
Producers of this illegal drink may earn an income from it. But the damage and disruption they bring are far reaching.
Marijuana is another damaging drug that is causing mayhem to our young population.
Sadly, a number of community members saw it fit to cultivate and sell it to the young population.
Those mentally-ill young people with very little clothes on them that sat along the streets of Honiara daily speak of the severe consequences of marijuana consumption.
The use of these two drugs in the community is widespread because of their availability.
To get rid of them is a tough job.
But it’s a job that must be done if our communities are to enjoy peaceful co-existence.
Law-abiding residents of Taba’a settlement have shown as the way.
Report to police if you see someone producing kwaso or planting marijuana in your community.
You can do it discreetly without the producers of these illegal drugs knowing it.
All you have to do is provide the names of the persons and location of the community and let the police do the unpopular job of arresting them.
There are more law-abiding citizens than kwaso or marijuana producers in the community.
So let’s not allow these few law-breakers to destroy our communities and young people.
In fact they don’t deserve to be members of our communities if they don’t want to listen.
Their right place is behind bars.
By confiscating thousands of litres of kwaso and dozens of marijuana plants from Taba’a settlement, police have effectively cut off these drugs from getting into the hands of their would-be consumers.
The more of such raids, the lesser the drugs getting onto the streets.
Let’s work together with the police for a peaceful Solomon Islands.
