Matthew Wale warns Solomon Islands lacks data, transparency and strategy to tackle the growing meth crisis.
OPPOSITION Leader Hon Matthew Wale has issued a serious warning that the country is confronting the growing methamphetamine threat without transparency, data, or a clear national strategy.
Hon Wale probed government authorities during the Bills & Legislations Committee (BLC) if there was data available but it was evident that none of them have any idea on the gravity of the matter.
Health, police, ports, sufferance wharves and even aviation could not provide BLC with any concrete data on this alarming drug crisis.
Hon Wale said government authorities failure to provide credible and informed report on methamphetamine activity is a setback to a robust zero tolerance approach to the matter.
“We are in the dark. The country is in the dark. And when a nation is kept in the dark about a drug crisis of this magnitude, that is a national failure,” he said.
The Opposition Leader said there is no publicly available national dataset outlining the extent of distribution networks and the geographic spread of the drug across the country.
Hon Wale warned that without accurate information, the challenges of a holistic strategy to tackle this crisis would be a problem.
“How do we measure progress when there is no baseline? How do we assess whether the problem is escalating or stabilising? How do we protect our citizens if we do not even know the scale of the threat?” he said.
The Opposition Leader stressed that methamphetamine is not a minor law-and-order issue; it is a national security, public health, and social stability issue.
“Such approach does not defeat organised crime. Transparency, intelligence, and coordinated action do,” he said.
The Opposition Leader is concerned that without transparency and without data, we are not fighting this problem but instead we are reacting to it.
Source: Opposition Press Release
