A fortnight ago, the government released a report indicating that nearly a half of students in our universities have abused at least one drug or substance in their lifetime.
Every time someone does drugs, or sells drugs, or even just looks the other way, they’re supporting an industry that costs more than money — it costs lives. George H. Bush
Findings showed that there were proportionately more students from public universities (68.5%) compared to private universities (31.5%). Over half (54.2%) of the student population were male and 45.2% were female while 0.6% did not state their sex, according to The National Campaign Against Drug Abuse Authority (NACADA).
These are grim statistics. It means the generation which the country will, ultimately bequeath leadership, will not be sturdy men and women, thanks to the grip of drugs and substance will have on their lives.
Grimmer than this are two verbatim statements I gleaned from the report, attributed to the students secured through Focus Group Discussion (FGD). The first remark is that, the problem of drugs is becoming a crisis and getting out of order since there is no one focusing on its control. The other remark is that “…alcohol and cannabis are normalized to a point that they are no longer a problem.
The students’ remarks were loaded. They were saying that we have not, as a nation, risen to the existential threat that drugs and substances pose to the safety and wellbeing of the country.
Buried in the statement is a cry. That we should as a nation, take stock of the threat and fight it with all available weapons. That is what the students were telling policymakers and opinion leaders. That they should fully comprehend the crisis and take decisive action or a series of actions to stem the crisis. That making alcohol and cannabis (inzaka in my Luhya language) normal is abnormal.
For some reason, the two statements from the FGD triggered my memory of a televised speech former President of the USA, George Herbert Bush made in 1989, when the Federal Government came to grips with the spectre of drugs destroying American Children.
I remember reading extracts from the speech, in a news story in the daily newspapers at the time. We didn’t have the internet then where you could easily access the full text of the speech as delivered. However, two direct quotes from the news stories attracted me and they still linger in my mind.
The internet of things, courtesy of the emerging ICT has made it possible for the USA government to digitize the speech and, please, allow me to quote them here.
Speaking directly to the students, Bush noted: “Every day, with a thousand small decisions, you’re shaping your future. It’s a future that ought to be bright with potential. And most of you are doing the right thing, but for those who let drugs make their decisions for them, you can almost hear the doors slamming shut. It isn’t worth it.”
The other remark from his speech as reported through either Reuters or AFP was: “Every time someone does drugs, or sells drugs, or even just looks the other way, they’re supporting an industry that costs more than money.”
This was the second speech President Bush delivered after an earlier televised speech to the American people, where he unveiled a national strategy to address the crisis that drug dealers—from Colombia and other Countries in South America—and a naïve children and youth had made possible.
I noticed nearly all the recommendations that NACADA has made in the report to curb drugs and substance abuse among students in the Universities are restricted to Information Education and Communication (IEC)—a strategy that aims to change the attitudes, beliefs and behaviours in respect to health or social issue, and problems.
Publication campaigns against drugs and substance abuse have its functionalities. They do change attitude and behavior, properly packed and delivered to the targeted audiences.
With the greatest respect, however, it has its limitations. It cannot address the disrespectful, subterranean in some cases, brazen merchandising of bhang or inzaka, and other sophisticated drugs in urban and rural villages, the survey report identified as widespread in universities.
Sometime in 2018, an officer in a security department in one of the public universities told me that drug deals see university students as a market—a potential and a current market for drugs. I had accompanied the former Cabinet Secretary for Education, Fred Matiang’i to the university. This bothered me a lot.
The drug lords have adopted sophisticated marketing, advertising and sales strategies to capture and retain this market.
The drug dealers may not have a nationwide organisation which coordinates the initiation of children and teenagers into drugs. Be it in urban or rural centres, there are drug dealers either working independently or in unison, to lure children and teenagers into drugs.
To drug lords, public campaigns against Drugs and substance abuse, is hot air.
The government needs to meet the obstinacy of drug dealers, whoever they are and wherever with fire. They might understand this language. Any other language other than this iron and steel approach is akin to playing a flute to a goat.
The government ought to walk or speak softly, but walk with a big stick. Speak or walk softly with all those who can help carry the message about the debilitating effects of drug use to children, teenagers and victims of drug and substance use. This will prevent many of them from getting into the drug ring or walk out of it.
The government should, however, wield a very big stick to deal with drug lords—be they small or big—without demur.
It is an open secret in nearly every village who is peddling, growing or peddling drugs. In most cases, these people don’t have the power and influence to intimidate local administrators.
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However, local administrators—village headmen, Nyumba Kumi, assistant Chiefs and Chiefs—need unequivocal directive to cut the network of destruction of children and teenagers in all their respective areas of jurisdiction. They need the full weight, authority and power of the leviathan to have the courage to fight this menace in our villages, estates.
The directive, made by say, the Cabinet Secretary for Interior and National Coordination, in loud and clear language, to County Commissioners, would see arrests, destruction of bhang plantations, arraignment in courts of those who supply the drugs.
It is useless to spend millions sensitizing people, rehabilitating victims of drugs without cutting the supply chain of the drugs. Drug peddlers are almost waiting in the wings, to make nonsense of the good work NACADA and other players do in keeping children and teenagers safe from drugs and substance use.
Let the government walk softly. Let it walk with the parents, guardians, teachers, social workers, under the leadership of NACADA in steering public education and awareness campaigns against drug abuse.
At the same time, let the government carry a big stick to crack the heads of drug lords.
In a famous speech, an American statesman, William Jennings Bryan observed fighting for ordinary farmers against industrial and business magnets, said: “You shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold.”
Drug lords should not crucify the lives of children and teenagers on the cross of drugs and substance use.
By Kennedy Buhere
Communication Specialist
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