Weak And Ineffective Drug Laws Blamed for the Difficulty of the Liberian Government to Crack Down on Marijuana
Weak and ineffective drug laws are being blamed for the difficulty of the Liberian government to crack down on growing and trading in marijuana.
A report released to the press by the Liberian Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) in Monrovia on Friday quoted law enforcement officials in the country’s central region of Bong County lamenting the apparent inability of the government to stop the growing of the drug and its domestic trade.
The report claimed that although the growing, selling and buying marijuana is illegal in Liberia, law enforcers lamented what they called the weak penalties for dealing in the crop.
The Chief for central Liberia at the Drugs Enforcement Agency (DEA), Flomo Weahma, was quoted in the report saying “the laws in question are permissive of these acts that are perpetrated by criminals who continue to have these drugs in our communities, that have caused our children, our brothers, our fathers and our mothers to become addicted to these harmful substances,".
He called for better laws more resources for law enforcers to deal with future offenders.
The report suggested that more Liberian farmers are resorting to growing marijuana for its commercial value in the domestic market with growers increasingly dependent on it as a livelihood for survival.
According to the United Nations (UN) Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) marijuana is the world’s most used illegal drug with African countries producing a quarter of marijuana worldwide.
The UN claimed that at least 13.5 percent of Africa’s adult population uses the drug, considerably higher than the global average which is between two and five percent.
Source African Press Agency
African News from NetNewsPublisher.com
Category: Africa
