Botswana is going through a difficult face culturally, socially and sociologically.
While at a national level things are hard enough, the situation we must point out is much more unbearable at micro levels; family and individual levels.
Drugs, alcohol and addiction are at a scale never before imagined.
Because somehow as a country we always perceived ourselves as immune we have been caught napping, totally unprepared.
And because we have never imagined it could happen to us, we now have no idea on how to deal with addiction, especially at a scale that it is happening.
Our young people are literally swimming in drugs.
To make matters worse, the people who are supposed to be role models, who these young people look up to, are themselves also doing drugs.
These include many of our corporate leaders, business people and so-called celebrities.
This on its own engenders and entrenches the drug culture as young people emulate these icons in every aspect of their lives.
In the past we only heard of drug abuse, addiction and dependency in faraway places.
Whenever drugs caches were confiscated by law enforcement agencies, more often it was proved that such drugs were on transit to other countries.
Botswana was only a conduit.
But today we are a consumer that is growing in its significance owing to the fact that the market is prime, untapped, unsaturated and in many ways comparatively awash with money.
What we need to do as a country is to accept that drugs and all the ills that come with addiction are to stay, that we have joined the club of bad company of countries that include South Africa, United Kingdom, South Africa and others which are views by drug barons as rewarding destinations for their trade.
In accepting that we would really go a step further to prepare ourselves on what we can do to save the young souls many of whom are on account of drug addiction literally morphing into carcasses right before our eyes.
We need to train more people into drug addiction treatment.
Already there are professionals, especially in government who could be roped in to provide the therapy, but the number of such professionals is clearly not going to match the industrial scale at which as a country we will soon be producing drug addicts.
More has to be done.
Producing such professionals while absolutely important is itself not enough.
We also have to start establishing rehabilitation and treatment centres.
This cannot be the responsibility of Government alone.
Private practitioners have to be encouraged to venture and invest into drug addiction treatment.
Botswana does not have independent rehabilitation centres.
And this has to be put right.
Government centres alone will never cope.
Of course the law has to be revisited to determine if it is up to the current challenges.
This includes enforcement and judiciary.
A way has to be found to ensure that drugs are stopped from entering our borders.
Such an initiative includes empowering intelligence of origins of these drugs and also establishing who the ring leaders are in our mist.
Only then can we cut the cycle.
To succeed the punishments will have to match incentives for selling drugs so there is sufficient deterrence on the ground.
Otherwise we better brace ourselves for more misery, anarchy, pain , frustration and helplessness that so many of our families are already having to contend with watching their loves ones engage in self-destruction as a result of drugs that are so readily available in our homes, streets, schools and, workplace.
Finally we have to work at strengthening our family institution which as a nation we have to accept has for close to twenty years now been under tremendous strain as a result of pressures that have included poverty, HIV/AIDS, high divorce rates, collapsing moral rectitude.
From an early age, children have to be honestly taught about the dangers of engaging in drugs.
There are many examples in our communities of young people who because of drugs have now had their lives destroyed.
And by drugs here we are referring much more than just alcohol and marijuana.
Hard drugs are today excessively among us, and they are fast destroying our communities.
Many of young people have been reduced into moving wrecks because of drugs.
Promising lives have been lost because of these drugs. And the pain for many parents and many families is growing ever more unbearable.
