She lent down and gently kissed his forehead, then his cheeks. As she did this, her lips quivered.
Then she laid her head gently on his chest, hugging him one last time in a final bone crushing embrace. At that moment, the sobbing came from deep within her soul, opening a floodgate of tears meandering like a river down her face and onto her clothes.
Then, as if to appease her pain, she remembered — her son was finally free from the clutches of evil that had ensnared his young tender life. Despite her overwhelming sadness of knowing that she would never hold him, hug him or ever see his lovable smile again, there was a moment of peace in the stillness of her unfathomable grief.
No father, mother, brother or sister should have to bury their loved one because of drug abuse. But the reality is, it’s happening. It’s a tragic horror story families are having to live with and live through.
As Fiji teeters on the edge of a drug-fuelled abyss, a few questions confront us all that are too piercing to ignore:
“Will the world be a better place because of your light?”
“Or will it bleed out and destroy innocent lives because of what you’ve done and are doing in the shadows of the demonically infested darkness of drug trafficking and abuse?”
The very soul of this crisis is gutting families, wrecking communities and tearing the moral fabric of our beloved nation.
The monster in our midst
We used to think the drug epidemic was a foreign plague, something that happened elsewhere, in distant countries and cities across the oceans. But now, it’s like a demonic horde has been let loose, breaking down the fragile doors of our island paradise;
In our villages;
In our towns;
In our schools; and
In our homes.
And it’s not just using. It’s dealing.
The dark and deadly trade has wormed its way into our communities, tempting our youth with illusions of grandeur and quick riches and a false sense of feel good power. It’s an insidious evil that rips apart not just the user, but every person who loves them and is close to them.
Families are breaking and being torn to shreds. Relationships between family members are strained and everyone’s walking on a knife’s edge.
There’s a feeling of quiet desperation, fear, frustration and foreboding in the home affected by drug abuse.
Parents are waking in the night to whispers of dread and unimaginable fear, despair and helplessness. It’s real. And it’s happening right now in your neighbourhood.
Children, some barely teenagers, are being lured into a world of deception, destruction and death.
And those doing the luring? Many once stood where you’re standing right now – at a crossroads.
Same roof, two paths.
It’s a painful truth.
Two children can grow up under the same roof, with the same love, the same parents, the same dreams.
One chooses a life of integrity and honest service and hard work ethic.
The other is lured into the demonic dungeons of drugs, not always out of desperation, but too often out of peer group pressure, excitement and experimentation. Sometimes out of entitlement, envy, or the lure of easy money.
They believe the world owes them. So they trade their soul for a stack of dirty money and leave behind a trail of death and destruction with lives and livelihoods stretched to breaking point, leaving young impressionable lives suffocating at death’s door.
They become merchants of misery, dealers of despair and death.
What they don’t count on is the cost. The cost of human suffering and terror. The cost of broken lives and broken dreams. The financial burden of feeding their habit and becoming like a leech, lying, stealing money and anything to maintain their drug habit.
There are mothers living maybe right next door to you who’re crying themselves to sleep every night wondering, despairing and desperate. Feeling alone, helpless and frightened. Unable to understand why their loved one has chosen a path that’s leading them into a world of misery and oblivion.
Parents with children on drugs dread the late night knock on their door telling them the excruciating news — “We’re sorry to have to tell you that your child has overdosed!”
In the blink of an eye, a family’s whole world comes crashing down. The earth shattering pain of hearing this heartbreaking news is suffocating and soul destroying. Their lives will never be the same again. And they’ll have to live with the pain and loss of their loved one for the rest of their lives, thanks to your decision to support a drug lord.
But as with every drug dealer, the empire of quick money crumbles. The law catches up. It’s only a matter of time. Because, you will get caught. No if or buts about it.
And when you do and you’re behind bars contemplating how you arrived in the cold concrete jungle of your loneliness, you’ll finally hear the screams of all those you’ve hurt, the lives you’ve ruined and the innocent souls full of promise that you’ve destroyed.
For some, the damage is done. Irreversible. Their lives are a tortuous mess. Some will never recover from the ordeal of their choices.
How do I know?
Because we’ve lived through it. Not just weeks or months. But years of sleepless anxious nights wondering if we would hear the dreaded knock on our door.
Our family was dragged into the depths of what seemed like a never ending nightmare that visited us every single day.
We’ve felt the helplessness. The guilt. The despair. The exhaustion of sleepless nights, wondering whether we would ever see our loved one alive again.
We questioned ourselves:
“What did we miss?”
“What did we do wrong?”
“Could we have somehow helped to avoid the worst and somehow avoid the pain, disaster and heartache?”
Questions upon questions. Over and over again.
We cried. We despaired. We almost broke in utter despair and hopelessness.
The days turned into weeks. The weeks into months. The months into heartbreaking years. But, despite our pain, despite our fears, despite the heartbreak and hardships of walking through the valley of misery and death, we never gave up hope.
And then, one day, a miracle happened.
Through intervention, our loved one turned their life around. Not because of anything we did alone, but because we surrendered our pain, our despair, our suffering and sadness to the only One we knew who could carry it for us – Jesus Christ.
Through His grace and mercy, what was once a story of tragedy became a story of hope and triumph. But let’s be clear: it came at a cost.
Tears, terror, time and trauma.
Healing still continues even to this day.
The Road to Redemption
Redemption is possible for every person regardless of what they’ve done and how much pain and suffering they’ve caused. But not without deep, soul-shaking change.
And even then, how does one make amends for the unimaginable pain they’ve inflicted?
For the lives lost, the children shattered, the parents who still live in silent grief and unbearable sadness of their loss?
That’s not something money can repay or time can heal and take away.
It’s not something prison time can erase.
But it’s something that must stop. Now.
A call to courage
To every drug dealer, user, or tempted soul:
You may not be able to undo the past.
But you can stop adding to the pain and suffering if you dare to be brave enough. Because remorse will make room for redemption.
Even from a prison cell, you can rewrite your story. Redeem yourself and write a new chapter in the book of your life.
But why wait until you’re caught, caged, and condemned?
Why walk this perilous path at all?
Why become the reason another mother weeps, another parent’s heart breaks, another life ends in the dungeon of darkness and drugs?
It takes no strength to destroy a life.
But it takes enormous courage to rebuild. To heal. To protect. To preserve.
A final plea
To our young people especially:
Look deeper.
Look ahead.
Look within.
Search the deepest recesses of your heart and soul.
Ask yourself:
“Will the world be better because of me?”
“Or will it suffer because I chose the path of substance abuse, fear and darkness?”
You’re not worthless.
You’re not beyond saving.
You’re a child of hope, born with purpose, loved beyond measure.
Your future is too precious to sell for a hit, a high, or a handful of cash.
It’s never too late to turn your life around and walk back into the light of your life to go after your dreams and the purpose that you’ve been created for. Yes, you were created for such a time as this.
But you must act before the damage becomes irreversible.
You can choose light over darkness.
You can still be the reason someone else believes in goodness again. You can save the life of others simply by making a brave choice. A choice to change. A chance to make a difference in not only your life but the lives of those around you. You were not born a mistake.
You can still be the miracle that you were created to be.
The time is now!
Stand up. Stand tall. And with the courage that’s in your heart- say No to drugs!