Tear down the drug houses
Editorial
Guyana Chronicle
January 3, 2005
PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo has announced that a special unit will be set up to go after drug houses and those who sell narcotics in communities.
In his New Year address to the nation, he stressed that Guyana must continue the fight against narco-trafficking and noted that dealers who run the drug houses are often known by members of the community and can often be identified.
The drug houses are really the small fry in the narcotics trade which is run by cartels that have made Guyana a key transshipment point for the lucrative markets in North America and Europe.
Drug houses were unknown in Guyana until the insidious narcotics network began sinking roots here and these dens are now spread in many communities around Guyana. The local network run by the drug houses is a spill-off from the much bigger narcotics trade but is no less a threat to the security and well-being of the nation than that posed by the cartels run by Colombians and resident kingpins.
The drug houses are the conduits for cocaine and other narcotics with which the dealers target the young, including schoolchildren.
The tentacles are spread so far and wide that junkies have emerged as the terror in many communities. Junkies and those spaced out often turn to crime to find the money to feed their habits because the drug houses do not sell the deadly goods on credit.
Those who complain about the activities of the drug houses are often terrorised by the dealers and suffering residents claim that their pleas for help from police in their districts often fall on deaf ears.
The operations of the drug houses have become almost a national epidemic and young spaced out junkies are now more common than the village drunk in many communities along the coast.
Drug houses, of course, are not peculiar to Guyana. These dens can be found in almost every Caribbean country and spring up wherever the drug cartels spread their tentacles.
They must be rooted out and the announcement by the President of a special unit to target these houses of evil would be welcomed by many around the country.
Community help would be integral to tearing down these planks in the narcotics trade but given the skepticism with which people still view the police, those running the special unit would have to come up with schemes to win their cooperation.
The Powell River RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) have produced a new information guide to help the public recognise and report suspected drug houses, the Powell River Peak website reported.
RCMP Constable Carl McIntosh said the guide, "Reporting a Suspected Drug House," is free and is available to the public.
"This guide to recognition and reporting of suspected drug houses is easy to read and fill out and can be given to the RCMP anonymously," he told The Peak.
Mr. McIntosh said he hopes the guide will encourage the public to help police in their fight against ridding the area of drug houses.
"Public assistance is being sought by police in eradicating the negative impact that drugs and drug-related property crime cause with the immediate community and surrounding area," he said.
"This gives us another tool to detect drug production facilities. Not only is it an enforcement tool, it's also a crime prevention initiative."
It is an initiative that can help in the assault on the drug houses here.