Ensuring the proposed Counter Narcotics Bill protects Fijians from evolving drug threats, including narco-terrorism, new psychoactive substances (NPS), and powerful drug cartels, is a key priority for authorities, Ministry of Policing officials say.
Speaking at the public consultation in Lautoka, Inspector Jemesa Lave outlined how global trends in drug enforcement are informing Fiji’s approach.
“In the US, they started shooting the cartels,” he said.
“The US just had the drug war in Mexico and Colombia but they were just supporting those countries. But now … they have drones that are shooting the traffickers down. So these are some of the things maybe in the future we could look at. Because particularly everyone will follow what the US is doing.”
Inspector Lave also highlighted the rising threat of fentanyl as a form of narco-terrorism.
“You would have seen on the news about fentanyl and these are some of the things that we need to look at — like narco-terrorism and drugs being used as a weapon of mass destruction. With fentanyl, a very little amount can kill people and there have been cases overseas where a large number of people have died because just one batch had a little more than the safe amount. So they overdose.”
He said the emergence of new psychoactive substances (NPS) posed further challenges, as many of these chemicals do not fall under existing schedules in the Illicit Drugs Act.
“So what happens, the Health Minister is empowered to make the change and not Parliament. These are some of the things we are looking at to ensure that the law is relevant for a very long time and considers the changing dynamic.”
Inspector Lave stressed that learning from international trends is critical to keeping Fiji ahead of drug-related threats.
“These are some of the things that are happening overseas and most definitely it could come to us, and we are looking at future-proofing the law.”
The public consultation is part of ongoing efforts to refine the Counter Narcotics Bill, ensuring it addresses both current and emerging challenges in the illicit drug trade.
