Customs Officers undergo training to control precursor chemicals

Mar 11, 2010 News

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Tighter control over the some chemicals described as precursors is to be implemented as Guyana steps up its fight against the trafficking of illegal drugs.
Home Affairs Minister Clement Rohee, during an address to Customs Officers yesterday, said that to address this issue, a system is being introduced that provides police and Customs oversight of transactions involving narcotic and precursor importation, sale, use, diversion, records and stocks of the chemicals.
The occasion was the training of Customs Officers in the control of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances, precursors and chemicals used in the manufacture of illicit drugs.
The Task Force on Narcotic Drugs and Illicit Weapons, during several of its meetings, examined the system in which narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and  precursors chemicals are imported, stored, distributed, transported, sold and exported.
According to Minister Rohee these measures cannot be implemented when the law enforcement officers are not familiar with the chemicals over which they are required to maintain control.
To this end training to identify the substances for which import or export permit has been issued is now an imperative in illicit drug control.
“It is therefore with a feeling of satisfaction that I associate my Ministry with the beginning of training of the first batch of Customs trainees in the task of narcotic drugs and precursor control,” Rohee stated.
The initiative is a collaborative effort between the technical staff of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Health/Food & Drug Department, Customs & Trade Administration/GRA, Guyana Police Force and Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit.
According to Rohee, this level of collaboration is good since already the administration is subjecting to security scrutiny, applications for importation of narcotic drugs and applications for licence to sell controlled substances.
The next step he said will be to sensitize the general public to the precursor items listed and of the procedure for their importation and control.
The Minister said that the administration has come a long distance towards putting in place measures that are building the capacities of those institutions involved in narcotic drug control.
“This is but another important step towards that goal,” Rohee said.
Outlining the path that has led to Guyana adopting measures to fight drug trafficking, the Minister said that in Guyana, the use and abuse of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances came to public notice in the mid 70s.
The smoking of cannabis popularly called “ganga”, developed into a fad that was glamorized by a certain section of our society, mimicking the social rebellion of North America and the Musical emancipation of the Caribbean.
By 1985 the fad had grown into a national problem requiring the intervention of the state when in 1988 the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Control) Act was legislated.
Since then, he said, there has been the rapid development of the international drug trade which stretches its cancerous and menacing tentacles across the entire world.
“The negative impact includes corruption of institutions and their officials, drug addiction and its gigantic social cost, proliferation of illegal weapons and development of types of gun crimes the savagery of which was never seen in Guyana before.”
The Minister pointed out that like termites undermining the structure of good buildings, so do money launderers who undermine the foundations of our economy and the social fabric of our society.
He said that legitimate business cannot compete with those that operate for the purpose of laundering dirty money and no country is insulated against the onslaught of international drug trafficking.
“It is an international problem that requires an international solution.   We have to think globally and act locally.
It is therefore with that viewpoint firmly held, that Guyana has entered into bilateral, regional, hemispheric and international anti-drug agreements in which we take the cooperative approach in solving mutual problems.”
However, there are internal challenges he said, which Guyana must confront and solve for itself
These are articulated in the National Drug Strategy Master Plan (NDSMP) of 2005-2009.
A review of this Plan was completed last December and shows that of the 36 programmes recommended, 17 have been completed; 16 have started and are either on going or in various stages of completion and three have not fully started.
Among the programmes to be implemented is one requiring measures to tighten the control of precursors.

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