Monrovia – It’s Friday and students of various high schools wander at the dilapidated Ducor Hotel premises chatting, laughing and sipping on the butts of lit cigarettes and wrapped papers.
Report by Bettie Johnson-Mbayo, [email protected]
Adolescents as young as 14 attired in their school uniforms and with their bag packs still on their backs, they take a turn in sipping the cigarettes and lit wrapped papers.
Boutros Security Agency is the firm protecting the area, but one of its guards told FrontPageAfrica that weekends are smoking days for teens.
The guard who asked for anonymity said the Liberia Drugs Enforcement Agency regularly raids the area but such has not discouraged the students from regularly visiting the area.
“If you look at the front of the main entrance to the hotel, we placed a rope on an iron from one end to another, that is because we don’t want them coming up here to smoke.”
The guard said Fridays students overcrowd the ground of the hotel but they as security guards have no control over the students.
“When they get in their thing (high), they misbehave and all we do is act like we don’t see them.
“The students can even use this place as a sex ground when they in their drug, but what will we do? Our main concern is they shouldn’t come in the building,” the guard said.
Residents of the areas also complained of the influx of high school teens on Friday and their usual substance abuse habit.
Theresa, a mother of four wondered why is government silent on tackling dealing with the importation of narcotics in the country.
“I live right here, every Friday whether school day or not, these youths are here; the most frustrating part is seeing them with their uniform trouser or skirt along with their school bags on their back and all you see is the cigarette or some white paper in their hand smoking.”
She recalled her husband receiving insults when he tried to stop the children from smoking.
Daniel Brown who lives in the same area described the habit by the students as ‘scary’ for the next generation of the country.
He recommended that state security take over the area which, according to him, when done will stop students from smoking.
Brown also wants parents and school bodies take control of students who are fond in such habit.
According to him, the hotel ground must be used for tourist attraction instead of students using it as substance abuse ground.
Brown said the use of substance abuse is an important public health problem and could undermine progress made in a country rising from years of conflict.
The APYL- Association of Progressive Youth of Liberia who are involved with rehabilitating addicts and youth empowerment have alarmed the rate at which youth are engaged in substance abuse in the country.
APYL in a recent petition to the UN last year said, hundreds of youth are recruited daily nationwide by these illicit drug users in street corners, ghettos and slums.
“Unfortunately, the repercussions of this have been the youths who are supposed to be the nation builder and that which Liberia development and progress depends have manifested themselves and are called “Zogos”.
The stated that Liberia, a country of 3Ls- Low, Level Literacy income inhabitants (poor young men, women, and children) trying to survive have been exposed and vulnerable to these hardened substances that are coming into Liberia and consume by youth using their leisure time negatively.
“This harmful abuse of the illicit drug by young people in Liberia has a very serious mental health implication.”
The petition furthered that Liberia’s illicit and illegal drug use victims will double by 2022 if not giving serious attention now.
Furthermore, From Snapper Hill to Rivoli on Broad Street, high school students are seen also taking in alcohol at a mini bar, not a stone throw away from Sky FM.
At the same time, Foday Kawah the Executive Director of Defense for Children International (DCI) condemned the intake of youths Taking in drugs.
“We will blame the community, society, government for that because the government has no measure in tackling it and responding to the crime.”
He said tackling drugs abuse is a collective effort and not just arresting perpetrators but rehabilitating youths who are consuming the substance.
“No matter how many arrests, the consumer will have the appetite, not just confiscation but what about those who are consuming it,” Kawah said.
The DCI Executive Director said the Liberia Drugs Enforcement Agency must collaborate with the Ministry of Health, Gender in order to fight the menace.
He added that social reintegration is a key factor in tackling children on drugs.