Drug law needs reviewing: Kwa

By MARJORIE FINKEO
PENALTIES such as two years’ jail for growing, harvesting or possession of illegal drugs like marijuana are out of date and need reviewing, Department of Justice and Attorney-General secretary Dr Eric Kwa said.
Similarly, cocaine use and abuse carried soft penalties guided by laws against marijuana.
“Our laws are old that were made in the 1950s and we are reviewing them now and going through them to create new laws and increase the penalty years,”Kwa said.
He said the department was waiting for the Constitutional Law Reform Commission (CLRC) to submit its report so that its recommendations and suggestions to increase penalties could be taken on.
The two years penalties for marijuana is “nothing”and also with the cocaine it is very light, Kwa said.
A magistrate made a similar call recently, saying the Act needed to be reviewed to discourage drug use and abuse in Papua New Guinea. The magistrate said light sentences such as two years was no deterrent and compared it with the tougher laws of Indonesia which slapped jail terms such as 20 years for the same offence.
Across the border, a drug offender of the worst sort faces death.
Indonesian drug laws are harsh.
Seven foreigners were given 18 months each for possession of 55kg of cocaine in Milne Bay recently.
They are to be deported next month.
Kwa said because Papua New Guinea’s law “was a very old, that is not effective” and they will look into increasing penalties of Dangerous Drug Act.