DEATH BY STRANGULATION AT CHRISTMAS

Dec 21, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The family of the poultry farmer who was found strangled to death at Unity, East Coast Demerara, are going to have a very sad Christmas. They have lost a loved one and they are entitled to feel aggrieved about his death.
At least one of the members of the family believes that the death of the farmer was due to increasing drug use within their and the neighbouring community.
We do not know at this stage whether their suspicions have merit. But what is known is that drug use has long become a serious problem for many communities and the effects – especially of the use of cocaine – is evidenced by the many young drug addicts who can be seen disheveled and destitute throughout Guyana.
There was a time when the Guyanese people were so poor that the authorities were not concerned about the use of cocaine within the country. It was said then that the price of cocaine was too expensive for ordinary, domestic use and most persons would have been unable to afford to sustain a cocaine habit.
Well we have seen all that change. Drug use has become a problem for many communities and especially within certain rural communities it is wasting away the lives of many young people, splitting families apart, and leading to all manner of crimes.
You just have to be patient enough and stand by any road corner in any town and eventually you will see someone who is an addict. You just have to talk to some persons and they will tell your stories about individuals stealing money, jewellery and even household effects from relatives just to sustain a drug habit. You just have to talk to some families and you will recognize how many of them have been torn apart because of increased drug use.
It is true that drug use is not as pervasive in Guyana as it is elsewhere, but given the smallness of our country, the impact of the existing drug use, the lives it has shattered and the social problems that is in its wake, represents a serious threat to the social order.
If the suspicions of the relatives of the slain poultry farmer are true, he would have joined the list of persons who have fallen victim to persons who commit crimes in order to sustain a drug habit.
This is a problem that the Ministry of Human Services and Social Security, in collaboration with the security services, needs to root out immediately, and it can be done with the necessary political will.
Drug lords are not going to be easy to nail. They normally do not touch the stuff that they peddle. They have front men that do all the work for them. So it is often difficult to tie them to anything.
To catch the big fish requires major and long investigations spanning years. And it will require entering into plea bargaining with small fish in order to nab the bigger fish. This is how it is done internationally, and Guyanese need to continue to cooperate with foreign drug enforcement agencies who would have been building their own intelligence of the source of drug trafficking in Guyana. It takes time to nab the big fish, not just here, but all over the world. And if Guyana does not get them, Uncle Sam will eventually. It is all just a matter of time.
What the local authorities can enjoy greater success in is closing down some of the drug blocks in the country that sell their illicit substances to our young people.
There are persons within the affected communities who can tell you which are houses that sell drugs to our youths. And if the members of the community know this, then the police should know this.
There have be concerted efforts made to get also at the small fry because while in the grand scheme of drug trafficking, these small fry that sell drugs locally are negligible, in terms of the economic costs to our society as a result of so many of your youth being hooked to drugs and being forced to resort to stealing and possible murder just to get money to finance their drug habit, the cost is prohibitive.
There is an argument that says that trying to close down these drug blocks makes no sense. New ones it is said will emerge. This may well be so, but as more and more people and the communities become involved in the fight against drug use, the battle will be won.
This is a battle to save our young people from further harm. It is a battle to save hard working, innocent people from becoming the victims of crimes committed to finance the drug habits. In some areas, particularly in rural areas, the problem is growing and unless it is nipped in the bud, it will spread eventually – if it has not done so already, to our schools. And when it gets there on a large scale, it will, as the Americans have found out, become almost impossible to contain.
So the campaign begins to root out from our communities all those houses and dens at which drugs are being sold to our young people. Let the peddlers face the brunt of the law, but instead of only jailing them, let them do some hard work so as to repay to society and especially to our youth, what they have robbed them of.

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