Botswana is on the verge of what threatens to become a social disaster the country has had to grapple with in a long time.
Habit forming drugs, including crack cocaine, heroin and mandrax, are now readily available in the country, including in schools.
Botswana used to be a conduit for these drugs as they were transported from South Africa up the north or the other way round.
But we are no longer just a conduit.
We are becoming a big market that is awash with money and with a total lack of awareness when it comes to the ravages that these drugs can visit to one’s health, life and the life of those around him like family, friends and relatives.
While in the past many people would frown at such drugs like marijuana, today the substance is viewed by many as too soft a drug that authorities should not even waste time and resources chasing people who either sell or consume it.
The general feeling is that the resources should be directed to fight the more lethal drugs that have recently penetrated what is proving to be a booming and still largely untapped market.
The tragedy of it all is that the people who are supposed to be role models, including some who have become very successful in the corporate world, are some of the biggest customers.
Because Botswana does not have a long culture of substance abuse, as a country we do not have facilities that are specifically equipped to deal with these kinds of problems.
A lack of rehabilitation centers, therapies and people trained to counsel the victim necessarily means that it will not be long before we have a good number of our people, a majority of whom are young souls, roaming the streets as semi-dead carcasses because they would have fallen victim to drugs.
One way of dealing with the growing drug problem would be to increase educational campaign efforts towards teaching our people about the long term negative effects of substance abuse.
Another way, which, to their credit, Government is forcefully implementing, is to deny drug lords any refuge inside our communities.
Experience shows no matter how hard a Government may want to fight drug lords, it is never easy to defeat them, not least because of the high profits that are at stake, but also because there is always an international dimension to it because these drugs come from outside sources that are mature, more sophisticated and resolute in their determination to open new markets for their products.
To prepare for what will no doubt be a mammoth task of rehabilitation, there is need to start a public debate on just what resources we need to mobilize in preparing for the future.
There is no point trying to hide the fact that from the current economic climate, this mandate cannot be left sorely to Government.
Churches, NGOs and civil society all have to be a part of the campaign against drug use.
Those who are better placed should start as early as now by setting up rehab centers and mobilizing whatever forms of therapies we surely are destined to need as a nation in the near future.
In the meantime, Government should continue their commendable efforts of making the country as inhospitable as is possible for those who want to trade in drugs.
One way of doing so, other than policing, is to come up with punitive measures that are deemed prohibitive enough.
Special attention should be paid to schools where the young are the most vulnerable and most gullible.
As a country, we still have an opportunity to halt a scourge that has decimated many countries and societies across the world.
