Leader backs plan for harsher penalties for drug users

By JAMES APA GUMUNO
A WARD councillor in the Gena-Waugla local level government in Chimbu’s Kerowagi district has praised the Government for proposing harsher punishment for drug abusers.
Cr Bongoro Gipson, from the Kunabau area, said drug addicts caused a lot of social disorder in every community and it was about time the government addressed it seriously.
He said church and community leaders supported the government’s intention to pass a new law to impose up to 50 years imprisonment for people smoking, cultivating and selling marijuana and those producing homebrew.
Gipson said that marijuana was widely grown as another cash crop in rural areas by people after quick money.
“Marijuana beats coffee in terms income, it fetches high price in the market at any time of the year,” he said.
Gipson said that at the current market price in PNG, a kilogramme packet of marijuana was going for K40. It was a bit more in bigger towns and cities.
Gipson said many people cultivating marijuana thought only about money they would be getting without considering the side effects it had on users.
He said many young people who were supposed to contribute meaningfully to the development of the district and their communities were wasting their lives with marijuana.
 Gipson said these users caused nuisance and created problems in communities.
“We leaders try our best to stop the cultivation and smoking of marijuana among the youths but, you can’t do much because these drug users are mentally affected and do not listen to us,” he said.
He urged the government to support police with logistics supplies like transport and so that they could reach rural areas, where most of the marijuana is grown, more easily.
Cr Gipson said majority of the law-abiding citizens wanted to live a peaceful life and not in fear on their home land because of the danger posed by drug addicts.
He said police should ensure that those arrested for smoking or selling marijuana be punished harshly. 
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