Help weed it out, Qld cops tell PNG

PAPUA New Guinea can use aspects of Queensland’s “Weed it out” campaign against marijuana in the Torres Strait islands adjacent to the PNG mainland, to fight transnational crime.
This was the suggestion of the campaign’s project manager Gary Hunter, who is also a policeman with the Queensland state.
He told the 16th Transnational Crime conference in Kokopo, East New Britain, that Queensland’s “Weed it out” campaign had proven to be successful in the Torres Strait and parts of Far North Queensland and should, therefore, work effectively in PNG.
Hunter said that if PNG law enforcers adopted the Queensland police strategies, they would also cause the people living in the communities to think differently about cannabis or marijuana.
“The project realistically has taken an approach that effectively helps to reduce harm and help people understand and combat the cannabis trade in the region,” he said.
Australian Federal Police (AFP) Chief Supt Brent Carter said drug transition between the Australian and PNG borders had been a constant problem from both countries.
Carter said a lot of people had been transiting between the two countries and it had not been a matter that could be dealt with easily.
However, he added that over the years, law enforcing agencies in both countries had devised and improved strategies that had helped minimised the problem.
Carter also mentioned that the AFP had minimised the problem because of a joint-tasking with the Australian Defence Force which had been assisting them patrol the water boundaries in the Torres Strait islands.
He said that their working partnership with their PNG counterparts had been good and they would continue to build and strengthen it.
Carter said there had been a need to cut down on the transition of drugs between Australia and PNG.