Tale of a marijuana grower in Southern Highlands

 STANDING in the scorching sun, Buka Solia turned to MP De Kewanu and said: “You must help me with a chicken project to sustain my livelihood. Indeed growing marijuana is against the State law but it is my life. I knew in my heart I was spoiling the lives of youths but I had no other way to earn money.” 

Looking depressed, he turned to his LLG president Simon Tolpe, then bent down to pull out the first marijuana plant in his little farm before the crop was destroyed.

Solia is a well-known marijuana grower and buyers from all over Southern Highlands pack his home everyday to buy the drug..  

Karinz LLG president and Southern Highlands law and order chairman Tolpe declared war against marijuana and homebrew in the LLG of Mendi-Munihu districtfrom last month.

His awareness campaign in December was encouraging enough to convince hundreds of youths to surrender marijuana plants and homebrew equipment. 

He uprooted marijuana for the first time at Mopa village, and that was Solia’s garden.

A 12-member police drug squad from Mendi accompanied the MP for the launching of the programme,  with other LLG presidents from the district among them. 

On the same day, at least 10 gas cylinders used for producing homebrew were handed over to police by youths. 

The youths revealed that they were school dropouts and could not go back to their land to till the soil as they had been in the classroom for 10-12 years. 

Because there no job opportunities, the only option they saw was to produce homebrew when demand was high due to the alcohol ban imposed in the area. 

Handing the equipment over to the police meant no money in their pockets. A soft-hearted Kewanu broke down in tears and said he understood what life was like for school dropouts who had no job opportunities. 

“God has plans in our lives. Producing marijuana and homebrew is against the law and is not right in the eyes of God. But there are dozens of other avenues in which  we can be successful in,” he said. 

The youths’ surrender was something the MP and other Southern Highlanders had not experienced. “Where marijuana plants grew, cabbages, carrots, lettuce, tomatoes and other garden food will be grown. Youths will be involved in chicken projects and inland fish farming,” Kewanu said. 

To begin with, names of every youth who surrendered the items were collected and the number of items they gave up and their village names. The MP committed K100,000 each to the four LLG wards, including Mendi Urban, to buy  seedlings and start chicken projects and fish farming.

The first load of homebrew equipment and marijuana plants were loaded onto police vehicles, the MPs vehicle and four brand new vehicles purchased by the MP for his LLG presidents and brought to Mendi town. 

Hundreds of people at the town stood astonished as the motorcade circled the town. It was a message to the people that Mendi-Munihu district was changing.

The programme was hailed as a success story and in just a month, more than 70,000 plants were uprooted and more than 1000 gas cylinders were destroyed. Tolpe announced to every village that this was the “grace period” and those who did not surrender would face the full force of the law if they were caught after the programme.

The last village to participate was Pingrip village and the deeds were handed over to his fellow Lai-Valley LLG president Jack Soal, who then passed them over to Upper Mendi LLG president Solomon Timbol.

Tolpe praised the people from the LLG for their corporation in surrendering to the police and urged other LLG wards to do the same when their turns came to handover the drug and homebrew equipment.

Tolpe said other provinces were moving forward in terms of development but Southern Highlands was strolling behind because of the law and order problems caused mostly by marijuana and homebrew consumption.

“Mendi-Munihu district will become a role model in the province. Other MPs must support their LLG presidents to destroy the items that is destroying the lives of the youths and sparking law and order problems,” he said.