The fact that Assistant Commissioner of Police-Operations Livai Driu is again urging parents and guardians to always check up on their children must make people sit up and take notice.
His call comes in the wake of four primary school students allegedly caught smoking marijuana during an athletics meet at Suva’s National Stadium this week.
The students who were referred to police were in years 6, 7 and 8. Now that’s pretty young!
The students were found with a smoking apparatus inside a washroom, and were referred to security officials at the venue before the police were called.
Parents, ACP Driu said, had every right to check their bags.
“They need to be responsible with the current situation we are in, they need to check their bags before they leave their homes,” he said.
Now this is serious stuff. It raises many questions about how we are handling the drug issue in Fiji.
Are we even doing enough?
Do our law enforcement officers have this under control? It does not appear that way. We seem to have far too many cases of drug use at the school level.
Far too many students are being caught using drugs.
We can only hope it isn’t a reflection of a fragmented society, where parents and guardians are losing control of their young charges!
Then there will be questions about why our young children are experimenting with drugs.
Have we set a way of life that actually drives them towards drugs?
Are we showing them the attention they need? Are we engaged?
Or are we easily distracted by other commitments around us that we leave our children to fend for themselves?
It is important that we get to the bottom of this major issue.
We must understand the scenarios that exist around us, and take appropriate action to deal with them.
That will mean engaging at the family level, at the community level and at the national level.
It will mean appreciating that times have changed, and our children are more receptive and exposed to developments on the digital platform.
It means they are also more aware of illicit drugs and the modes of communication to access these drugs.
We have a major challenge before us.
The onus is on us as parents and guardians to be proactive.
We go straight back to the question of whether we are doing enough to keep our children safe from the dangers and negative impact of drug addiction?
Sure, we know there are complex issues to deal with.
But they must be faced head on!
We need to prioritise drug education and create more awareness about the dangers of addiction.
What has happened here is a wake-up call!
