A darker side of Samoa is breeding very rapidly and if the issue is not talked about openly, it will spread like a virus and turn into an uncontrollable pandemic of methamphetamine.

Last week, a 16-year-old boy was arrested by the police with meth. The student claimed that he was taking it to his teacher. Claims that the teacher denied. The law is black and white and very clear.

It is possession. In this case, whether the teacher had asked for it or not, he has not committed a crime because the teenager was in possession and he had with him apparatus that is used to smoke meth. Meth is already in schools and even if there were sniffer dogs at the gates of every education institute, the narcotic would still make its way in.

The problem is already here and spreading like wildfire despite politicians denying that meth is a big issue. The reason why it will continue to be a problem is not because of its addictive nature but because of the returns.

Money is the best motivator and, in this case, the main reason why this will continue to breed. For the runners, especially the street vendors involved in this, the money is better than selling the junk they do now. The dealer is making more than $5,000 a week and you can imagine how much the person on top of the pyramid is making.

This money is also used to corrupt law enforcement and border security officials. The money makes the narcotic industry well organised. It has a structure and there is always a way of cleaning the dirty money. Money becomes the root of this evil.

Denying that this situation exists is like being an ostrich burying its head in the sand. The danger is there but the ostrich does not want to see it.

In 2023 Fiji recorded 415 new cases of HIV. More than 75 per cent of those who contracted the disease were by sharing needles used to inject meth. Injecting meth has become the most popular method of getting meth into the system. It may have already started in Samoa. The health authorities need to be ready for this.

According to the United States Justice Department, the economic consequences of drug abuse severely burden federal, state, and local government resources and, ultimately, the taxpayer. This effect is most evident with methamphetamine. Clandestine methamphetamine laboratories jeopardise the safety of citizens and adversely affect the environment.

The report stated that children, law enforcement personnel, emergency responders, and those who live at or near methamphetamine production sites have been seriously injured or killed as a result of methamphetamine production.

“Methamphetamine users often require extensive medical treatment; some abuse, neglect, and abandon their children, adding to social services costs; some also commit a host of other crimes including domestic violence, assault, burglary, and identity theft,” states the report.

“Methamphetamine producers’ tax strained law enforcement resources and budgets as a result of the staggering costs associated with the remediation of laboratory sites.”

While the Samoa Police is working with other police in the broader aspect of transnational crime, there needs to be stricter laws regarding narcotics in the country. Perhaps, this is the right time to revisit laws and strengthen them or modernise them.

Families need to start talking about the dangers of meth during the time they sit down to have a family conversation. If the laws are not keeping the drug off the street, perhaps sound advice and openness on the issue will help people stay off it. This will empower the younger ones with the tool to say no, not only to drugs but to other substances as well.

The churches can do the same. The church leaders need to be able to talk to their flocks and perhaps divine intervention could help.

The Samoa Police are doing whatever they can. They are constrained when it comes to resources, better funding to lead the fight against meth is needed, and for this political will is needed.

Meth is here, it has made a home and whether politicians and bureaucrats agree or not, this narcotic will keep eating at the society and poison the future of Samoa.