The notion of local organised drug rings has been glaring us right in the face. It is something police may have known about for some time. All the signs are there.

We have said it on repeated occasions that the drug and guns trade is being run in an organised manner. The top end rarely touches the merchandise and only deals with the money to the shot-callers, top henchmen and down to the runners who do most of the dirty work, including the sale of the drugs. There is also the possibility of involvement of those in law enforcement and working on the borders. Money remains the best motivator.

Meth is not the problem. The problem is the environment that has been created that allows for such a trade to take place. Keep turning a blind eye to the children who are vending, or the families that would get into the trade to make ends meet and get a better quality of life and see the consequences of it.

We need to have stronger and stricter border control. This includes customs and the entry of goods into the country. This also includes better monitoring of the ocean borders to see who and how they are entering.

We cannot keep on arresting the small players in the drug trade. The target has to be the big players, the main people who control the different meth gangs or syndicates. This way, the pipe at the top is plugged and does not let anything trickle down to the bottom.

There is a need to address poverty. This is even a Sustainable Development Goal that this nation has proudly signed. This is Goal One – ending poverty in all its forms by 2030. The year is 2025, almost five years away from the target date. Prioritise education, ensure education is accessible and free, invest in teachers, and above all, take those children off the streets.

Apart from upgrading customs and border facilities, the only other way out of this situation is education and awareness. Children as young as 14-years-old are involved in this, as users and runners. The poverty situation faced by child street vendors has also made some of them easy targets to distribute meth in Samoa.

Police can get hard on everyone, search the vendors daily, and have regular roadblocks with sniffer dogs. Has that worked anywhere in the world? Let us look at New Zealand. The police have been doing that, but the operators always find other ways.

Eradicate the child vendor issue by having free education, and work on reducing poverty, and perhaps then some of these numbers will dwindle. It is also time to break away from the tradition of not talking about certain subjects in the family circle. The realities of the use of this drug must be portrayed. Show children the hard images of meth addicts and shock their system. Awareness campaigns by authorities should not be just a few messages saying ‘be wise, don’t do drugs’, but the reality of the use should be talked about and shown.

The number one reason why meth will continue to be in Samoa is not that it is highly addictive but it is highly lucrative. There are people out there willing to poison others and get rich in the process. We can no longer believe that drug peddlers are small gangs but complex and well-organised criminal business entities. A new approach is needed, an inclusive one, otherwise we can be like Indonesia and Malaysia, where you get the death penalty for crimes related to narcotics.

We require changes in the law. Changes that the government cannot sit on. These are things that need to be done immediately. The police need more power when it comes to dealing with meth. The Narcotics Act is too old and it needs to be updated.

Meth is moving in fast and it has already made a home in Samoa. The longer the wait to change policies and laws in dealing with narcotics, the more drastic the situation will become. The cost of living and the money in the meth trade is luring many.

We need a system with incorruptible people, the best laws, and the determination to help law enforcement in every possible way.