Children as young as 12 are allegedly being drawn into Fiji’s drug trade, with some reportedly paid as little as $20 to $30 to help distribute illicit substances, Director of Community Oriented Policing Rakesh Chand says.
Presenting at the Interfaith Fiji workshop to tackle social problems in Suva yesterday, Mr Chand described cases in which children were allegedly involved in drug distribution for sale, saying these were potential exploitation cases of vulnerable youths by people involved in the trade.
He identified school dropouts, unemployment, limited opportunities and peer pressure as factors that could leave young people vulnerable to drugs and crime.
“In the absence of opportunities, what is happening is our youths are distracted into a pathway that just drives them into addiction, into a vicious cycle of crime, and into incarceration,” he said.
He warned against leaving the problem solely to police, saying prevention required families, schools and communities to identify vulnerable children early and provide appropriate support.
Mr Chand said police could not be expected to address every social problem.
He said a young person who was not attending school was not necessarily a police matter, stressing the need for families and schools to intervene before the situation escalated into drug use and criminal activity.
“We need to protect our children who are still in the education system.”
Mr Chand also highlighted the need to help young people break away from addiction and offending through rehabilitation and reintegration into their communities, rather than relying exclusively on punishment. He stressed that even the most comprehensive development and crime prevention plans would achieve little without sustained commitment to put them into action.
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