Ex-drug addict wants govt net godfathers

 A local drug rehab has appealed to the government to fast-track the arrest and seizure of notorious drug dealers operating in the country before they take the vast part of the nation’s workforce victims of the vice. 

 

She is from the centre for People with Drugs Dependence Relief Foundation (PEDDEREF) based in Temeke Dar es Salaam that marked three years of its establishment on Thursday.

 

Responding to the call, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office responsible for Policy, Parliament Affairs, Labour, Employment  Jenista Mhagama said the government has ordered Regional Commissioners of Dar es Salaam and Tanga, the regions notoriously known for harbouring drug dealers to immediately put all hubs under control.

 

The centre’s Director Nuru Saleh cried foul of the dealers, saying they were taking advantage of the economic desperate youth as carriers in smuggling drugs in their illicit business.

 

Nuru, who recently managed to quit drugs after 12 years of being taken victim, said “drug business costs life of the youth as they end up as robbers and prostitutes” out of economic desperation and alienation by their families, friends and the society at large.

 

But Manager for Relief Foundation Ally Doo said that the war against drug dealers calls for collective efforts among stakeholders to make sure the crusaders penetrate into the drugs business underworld to seal loopholes without reservation.

 

In fighting the vice, the Relief Foundation has also declared plans to open  branches in Morogoro and Mtwara to help drug users on the neighbouring Mafia Island, Iringa, Dodoma, Mbeya, Lindi and Ruvuma Regions. 

 

“But we are just too poor to afford costs of treating drug patients,” Doo said in what appeared like an appeal for financial support. 

 

Juma Desaile, a rehabilitating drug addict and an assistant manager for the foundation said he had been using drugs for the past 10 years during which he suffered segregation from family members and his close friends. 

 

He also sustained a wound on his stomach, but failed to treat it for five years owing to lack of money.