What I wish to speak my mind on are the problems human rights and our current constitution pose regarding firm and decisive action against drug lords. There are three specific issues I wish to address;
- The hopeless situation family members find themselves in when a person close to them is addicted but refuses to go for help. Current legislation requires a long process and the involvement of several government officials as well as finding time to have court hearings. This turns the situation into a prolonged and drawn out event. With the increase in dangerous drugs such as GHB, Crystal Meth and Heroin, overdose and suicides are commonplace and interventions need to be carried out with far more urgency and speed in order to save lives. Addicts at this point have lost control over their own will and should not be deemed fit to make their own decisions. To debate their rights is a contradiction in terms. How can you excercise your rights when you have lost your will and your mind? Those who care should be able to decide for you with a direct appeal to a magistrate. A social workers report is superflous and time consuming. Three sworn statements lodged with the Public Prosecutor should make quick access to a Magistrate possible.
- We all know that druglords and street dealers are going around doing their develish business with almost no fear and very little opposition. We will not get into the corruption among Police at this point. In my letter to the Minister of Police I raised several issues. From my previous experience working undercover I know that the Drug Act has several clauses that afford a lot more power to Law Enforcement but due to their fear of human rights violation, SAPS members are loath to apply these measures. If we as the public raise our voice and approach the Constitutional Court to set stricter rulings a huge dent will be made in the illegal drug trade. Let me explain;
- Drug Trafficking means buying, selling, storing and transporting drugs. Most drug busts are done when a sale takes place. Due to a lack of available funds by SAPS members only small amounts are involved and therefore the arrests involve small time runners and street dealers. Way behind the scenes are the suppliers and wholesalers. To catch the main men you need to set up a buying situation because the money is exchanged for big shipments and the buyer who supplies the cash is there to see that it goes down properly. Arrests made then involve the financiers of the drug trade and when they go down the entire network crashes for obvious reasons. I proved this to SANAB many years ago when I set up two main distributors and their entire operation was wiped out. If our Government is prepared to do this with gold and diamonds, why not drugs? The same rules should apply.
- In the other instance Section 12 of the Act provides for the detention based on solid information that someone is withholding vital information concerning drug trafficking. When a drug dealer gets knocked he is out on bail in no time working harder to pay for his lawyer and a possible fine or at least the bribe to let the docket dissappear. Stick him in solitary confinement under this Section and sweat the truth out of him. In the meantime his buddies will fear of being ratted and will treat him like the rat he is. This worked well for me and the entire LSD network we were operating before I got bust in Nov 1984. If we petition the Consitutional Court or the Minister of Safety and Security we can rid our country of these leeches. Who wants to join me in this battle?
Ado,
ReplyDeleteI hear you with this challenge with the system( drug act) re- intervention ,unfortunately there are social workers that make money out of this ,there are social workers who just do it for a salary and their social workers that are dedicated to their call of helping in this industry .Our social worker who has worked with me for 10 years as been a true value to the help and support of the intervention faze of this process .One of Our real challenges is the justice system very slow to do anything and also the impression that we get is the system is scared to give out orders for what reason I do not know ,we are in the job of trying to save lives and we have these people that don’t have the B......ls to see this process through ( human Rights).It’s our human right to fight for life. As you said addicts do not have the mental capacity to make a rational decisions .I have been doing court orders or have been involved with court orders for 12 years now ( drug dependency act)with great success ,but lately we seem to be seeing this unwillingness to help in the justice system. Our social worker all going well can have a case in front of a magistrate within 2 weeks. But the holdup is in the justice system.
You say this should be short circuited direct to the magistrate. I don’t entirely agree there, as most of these guys have no knowledge of addiction and really don’t give a dam how long the addict stays on the street .A good well bread social worker who again I stress has GOOD knowledge of addiction has been trained by someone like yourselves that agrees or is on the same page as you agrees firstly quick fix programs are not the order of the day and has good knowledge of addiction to fight back for the well being of an addict and his her family, they are the type of people we need to make a strong team.
I would be reluctant to say have drug courts for the following reason, it would empower more of government officials to get involved and they just don’t give a dam and the real knowledge or interest in saving someone’s life therefore this tedious long drawn out investigations will not get us anywhere. I had one yesterday e.g. have a person addicted to heavy pain killers sleeping tablets and alcohol she (a government social worker) states 28 days is all he needs .please he is nowhere in his recovery nothing has been dealt with and again he has been lead to another physiologists. Who again will more than likely prescribe meds again and start the whole cycle again.thanks Chris
Thanks for your comments Chris. A relationship with a magistrate should be cultivated. That's what we did here and that cuts out a lot of red tape. In the past there where dedicated drug courts which dealt only with drug related cases. Those people on the bench were very knowledgable and efficient. We must push for that again. If you have a dedicated social worker on board great, but if you can't find one the Act clearly says that family members and or a drug councellor (specialist) someone like yourself can draw up the affidavits for the court for sectioning someone who is a danger to themself or even a problem to society because of their addiction. Once our faith based programs have been validated because of our success rate we should confront the Minister of Health on short term programs. That's why we keep stats on people coming in who have been on other short term programs and have relapsed. If we could quatify the number of OD's and suicides because of recitivism (relapse) that would really get a strong response from families dealing with these horroble issies for some time.
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