Industrial glue needs to be classified as an inhalant and a hallucinogen, says a retired officer in charge of the Criminal Investigation Department’s (CID) drug unit, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Anare Masitabua.
“People just say glue, you need to say glue and what are the chemicals that are in there,” he said.
Mr Masitabua said there was a need “to actually give an understanding to the young kids that these chemicals were in glue because glue did not scare anybody or did not make someone understand what the chemicals were because the substance in that was so addictive”.
“Young and old people are doing it.”
He said glue sniffing was something that was not just a concern overseas, but presented a huge problem in Fiji where even children knew about the substance.
“I think it’s almost how many years now that we have been pushing on the inhalants or the Act that actually governs glue and all these substances, the Volatile Substances Abuse Act,” he said.
“We have been working with the police, defence and the Ministry of Education and other ministries to actually get the Act rolling with the A-G’s office.
“We know glue is legal and it is used for many things in Fiji, so how we are going to tailor make it to actually arrest whoever needs to be arrested.”
Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Manoa Kamikamica confirmed they were working on the issue.
“We are supposed to have some further consultations but that’s coming, we will make sure that gets addressed because it is a major issue for Fiji,” he said.
