By Takudzwa Changadeya
The Free Zim Congress leader Joseph Makamba Busha has expressed concern over the increase in drug and substance abuse in the country.
The presidential candidate said if voted into power in the forthcoming general elections, there will be a policy that will thwart all the illicit inflows of drugs.
Drug and substance abuse is rife in most urban centres of Zimbabwe and the scourge is tearing apart families and communities as young people and some adults have become addicts.
Talking to journalists after the launch of his party election manifesto, Busha said the drug and substance abuse scourge among young people in the country has reached unpreceded levels due to poverty and unemployment as a result of economic detoriation.
“It’s a very sad reality that the future of our young people is dying because of drugs and this is largely due to the increasing unemployment rate in the country, so drugs are coming in as a way of soothing themselves and escapism.
“It is very unfortunate to hear the current president of this country saying ‘if you see anyone lying down on the ground under the intoxication of alcohol, arrest them’.”
“Instead of arresting them, I think we should first try to find out what has really caused them to do so and the answer is very clear, we need to create employment for these young people so that they have something to occupy them,” he said.
The most commonly abused drugs in urban areas are crystal meth, popularly known as guka or dombo, marijuana (mbanje) and Bron Cleer (Bronco), a cough syrup.
Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) Zengeza East MP Goodrich Chimbaira recently said Zanu-PF is to blame for the increase in drug and substance abuse in the country, adding that some known drug lords in some parts of Harare were linked to the ruling party, with some claiming that they were unstoppable.
“If you walk around in Chitungwiza, you will notice that people involved in drugs are from Zanu-PF and some of them would be displaying party emblems and putting on regalia at their drug bases,” he said.
However, Zanu-PF Harare province chairperson Goodwills Masimirembwa said linking drug lords and peddlers to the ruling party was just a mere speculation aimed at tarnishing the image of the ruling party ahead of the upcoming elections.
“We are the ruling party and we are against drug and substance abuse in this country and our laws say that anyone involved in peddling of drugs should be arrested,” he said.
