A United States organisation has asked Coast communities to extend war against drugs to homesteads, villages and neighborhoods if the fight against drug trade in the region is to succeed.
Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) officials observed that the need to reduce demand for drugs at the Coast is currently overwhelming, terming it as one of the greatest set back in the fight against drugs.
Speaking to press in Mombasa, Acting Director of CADCA’s National Coalition Institute, Carlton Hall reckoned that “far too many people are dying in the streets almost every day because of drugs” adding the only way to address the challenge is by involving the entire community to come collectively to respond to the challenge instead of leaving authorities to handle the war single-handedly.
“It is very hard to tell whether the current war against drugs is making a difference when the need is so large… getting the community to fully engage in something whose result you can’t really see immediately it requires a bit of faith,” said Carlton.
He said in order to fight against the scourge of drug addiction and its consequences the community has a role of preventing more deaths from occurring as a result of drug addiction as well as provide long term recovery efforts for those who are already in addiction.
“But in addition we have to prevent folks from getting into dangers of addiction in the first place. That’s now demand reduction and that’s been the focus of this coalition,” he said.
This, he said CACDA seeks to achieve by supporting and mentoring the Mombasa Community anti-drugs coalition of Kenya which is one of the first anti-drugs coalition in the Country.
