By: Nyima Sillah
Ousman Saidybah Public Relations Officer and head of the Drug Demand Reduction Unit at the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency –of the Gambia (DLEAG) said the only persisting phenomenon no nation on earth irrespective of the laws can totally eradicate is drugs.
The DLEAG PRO, Lamin Saidyba made the remark during an interview with this medium.
“You can fight terrorism in different ways and stop it but the only persisting phenomenon no nation on earth irrespective of the laws that they have cannot boost to have totally eradicated is the drug. In Malaysia and Bangladesh, they prescribed the death penalty while in Saudi there is Sharia law but are they not having a problem? Go to America with all the technology, security, and money, they still have more drug problems than us. This tells you solving the issue of the drug is not as simple as people think. There is a lot of money that is involved and is not only about arresting.”
Meanwhile, he alluded that the law is not lenient with the traffickers but they felt that initially whilst they revise section 35 of the Drug Control Act which talks about possession but still many don’t know about Section 45 of the same act which talks about trafficking which carries a mandatory jail term of ten years and a fine of one million dalasi in default to serve another five years in jail.
According to him, on the possession aspect hence they cannot remove the criminal liability, what they recommended initially was to reduce the fine for first-time offenders which are limited to cannabis only.
He disclosed that the old act has been over-hold and perhaps next year it will go to parliament because they want to include provisions for community service for first-time offenders.