A man smokes marijuana during the informal cannabis holiday on April 20, 2017. A new Monitor investigation reveals that narcotic drugs get into different university gates through drug dealers called plugs. PHOTO/REUTERS
“I am a police officer and have worked in narcotics for about eleven years. I am currently out on another assignment. Let me first begin by talking about the background of the drug situation in Uganda. We have two categories of drugs, those that are homegrown, that is, cannabis and khat, which we normally call mairungi and enjaga. They can be manipulated and consumed in any form. Then we have other drugs that are either manufactured in laboratories or grown elsewhere and improved, but are smuggled into the country, and those include heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, and other stimulants. When we speak about drugs, Ugandans tend to think of those that are coming from outside the country. They forget that we have drugs here that are equally dangerous. Whether it is home-grown drugs or imported, the abuse of drugs is generally on the increase year after year. We have noted the trend right from 2010 when we began to seriously take records as the narcotics department.
What is shared in the police report about the statistics we have, according to me, is not even 10 percent of what is happening in the country. It is a very insignificant number of the general impact that is happening in the country. The drug problem is not a concern for many in Uganda. We don’t see the government putting much emphasis on this problem. We don’t see society, the parents, and the media talking about this issue. It is as if it is a small problem, as if we have much bigger problems to care about. It is not given the due prominence and attention that it deserves. This is the main reason why those who are affected by drugs view it as a personal problem. There is self-denial, and then denial by the parents. They look at you as if you are a wasted person, as if it were a problem you brought on yourself. Because of that, an individual struggles as the matter does not concern society. We tend to associate drug addiction with spiritual problems. We don’t look at it as a drug problem.
A survey that was done by Makerere
University and the narcotics department revealed that 52 percent of the boda bodas in Kampala use drugs; this means that one out of two boda riders is riding under the influence of drugs. Our analysis shows that about 60 percent of the youth in Kampala use drugs. Some drugs are criminalised by the government, but other drugs intoxicate people and are not criminalised. That is the biggest danger we have. For example, most of the so-called energy drinks that are on the market have intoxicating substances in them, but nobody is speaking about them. Even the adverts that play on the radios and TVs reflect what people are thinking. It changes their minds, and that change is because of the drug content in that drink. But nobody bothers to find out what we are drinking and eating.
They are only saying they boost energy, as if we have an energy crisis in the country. I interacted with the Kenya National Bureau of Standards on how they give standards to these so-called soft drinks, and you wonder about Uganda. I predict that shortly, we may have a catastrophe similar to Covid due to drugs if we don’t change our attitude. Another survey was that on the issue was conducted by an organisation called Uganda Harm Reduction Network. It was a baseline survey that indicated that the drug prevalence is among those between the ages of 17 and 39; the majority being between 24 to 34. Now in Uganda, the most common drug of abuse is cannabis because it is widely grown here and it is cheap. Those people who have money, the university students, and the working-class graduate from using cannabis to using heroin. So, you find the next drug of abuse in Uganda is heroin. There are also concoctions of so many things, so somebody will get cannabis and add either heroin or cocaine.
Drugs among different categories of people
Now, drugs do not discriminate between professions and jobs; so they are taken by all categories of people in society. There is a reason why people start using drugs. The security personnel, for example, occupy a unique position that sometimes exposes them to drugs. We have arrested some of our officers using drugs, but if we look at the reasons as to why they do so, it is because they are sometimes exposed to harsh conditions, and the drugs are usually taken to solve some problems. To address this problem, there is a need for public awareness. You can see a lot of violence and protests coming up, and that is a reflection of drug abuse. So we need to, first of all, tell Ugandans that drug abuse is on the increase. Then, the media needs to ask why we have all these energy drinks. In the West, in Ankole alone, we have 37 plants of energy drinks. What are these for? Are they sodas? Do they quench thirst? Do they satisfy hunger? What are their ingredients?
These are the questions I would want somebody to put to the government. Also, we need to expose that we have weak laws. So we need a strong law which is punitive against people who are cultivating and or smuggling drugs into the country. The law should bite. We also need to put the government to task to build rehabilitation centres. Currently, there is only Butabika, but it’s largely a mental health hospital. It has only a unit that deals with small drug abuse. We need to increase its capacity. We also need to reduce capacity in regional referrals so that the drug addicts can be taken to rehabilitation centres and be rehabilitated. First of all, Police have a CID unit, which is anti-narcotics and is mandated to fight drug abuse. It has done a tremendous job, first of all within itself; we have done training for both our police officers and the community. Before Covid-19, we were heavily engaged in training both police officers and the communities. We have sensitised people and enforced the law because the police are the enforcers. You give us the law, and we enforce it. If the law is weak, our enforcement will be weak. If the law is strong, you will see the impact.
Challenges faced by police in addressing drug abuse.
The only challenge we have as police is that we have a weak law. When you get a drug user and you take him to court, he can plead guilty and be cautioned or be given community service of digging around, or of cleaning around a public place for a week. Will that person stop? No. If you get somebody who is bringing hard drugs into the country, he is sentenced to a fine of Shs1 million. Will that one be discouraged? As police we are doing our work, but the challenge we have is a weak enforcement mechanism. Hard drugs come from far-off countries, so they normally get into the country by air. They come through Entebbe International Airport. Enforcement at the airport was strengthened because of the training I am talking about. So what happens now is that these people fly in with drugs to the nearest airports, for example, they will go through airports in Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, and Mozambique, and then travel the rest of the journey by road. We don’t cover all the borders, and even if we did, our screening is poor, so most of the drugs are now entering through our land borders.
We have seen several parents coming with their children, mostly those in secondary school, but not. The intention is that we should use our authority to have them stop either by imprisoning or by counselling but by the time the parent realises that his child is abusing drugs, that child is most likely addicted and any addicted person needs rehabilitation, counselling and post drug care which police doesn’t offer because that is not our mandate. This is now only being managed by private providers. The challenge is, they are very expensive. For example, some rehabilitation centres charge Shs60,000 per day, and you may find that the person requires three or six months of rehabilitation. When you give that information to the parents, you see most of them leaving, looking discouraged. They are hopeless, they don’t see light at the end of the tunnel.”
How bars and clubs deal with the drug problem
The Chairperson of the Bars and Clubs Association, Mr Rugiirwa Katatumba, says while they have rules against using drugs in bars and clubs, sometimes people find ways to sneak them in. “We have a very strong policy against drug use, mostly for teenagers, for everybody. A very strong policy against drug use in clubs and bars. We are against it. Firstly, it starts with the security because club goers are searched before they enter the clubs. Once they are found with drugs, they are confiscated; the policy is that whoever brings drugs should not be allowed in the clubs and bars. If they are caught using drugs within the premises, they are to be sent away, or we will even call the police on them and then hand them over because they are doing an illegal activity. For example, marijuana, the thing is they are very tiny and someone can hide them in a pack of cigarettes so they might be sneaked into a club. So you may find a person who was searched, but sneaks them in, but then once he is found using them, he is either to be thrown out or handed over to the police.”
2010
Whether it is home-grown drugs or imported, the abuse of drugs is generally on the increase year after year. We have noted the trend right from 2010 when we began to seriously take records as the narcotics department.
