De Wet’s comments on the drug crisis in the Lowveld

The shocking story on the front page today is but a small part of the disturbingly bigger picture of drug abuse, human trafficking and related child abuse that prevails in the Lowveld. Innocent children and young people are at the ruthless mercy of illegal, foreign drug lords who enslave our youth systematically.

And, yes kids, you may think dagga is harmless, but do you know that the drug peddlers lace it with heroin to pull you into their web of addiction?

Most towns in the Lowveld are connected to the main arterial road, the N4, between Mozambique and South Africa. It is also one of the main international smuggling routes for millions of rand’s worth of illegal drugs that flood South Africa on a daily basis from Mozambique and Swaziland, en route to Gauteng.

It is also common knowledge, and properly documented in the United Nations’ regular drug reports, that South Africa is one of the main dumping sites for tons of drugs. From here they are shipped to Europe, the UK and countries in Africa.

Lowvelder also reveals today that the much-feared Mexican drug cartels are well established in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Bloemfontein. These cartels are most feared for their brutal way of silencing opponents and snitches.

ALSO READ: Mexico Drug War Fast Facts

In the Lowveld, we have to worry about two Nigerian drug syndicates and one Tanzanian syndicate operating and peddling the poison to our children. The Nigerians are exclusively into the cocaine trade. The Tanzanians sell heroin.

Lowvelder knows who they are, has photographs of the main drug lords and will expose them in due time, and explain exactly how the networks operate, using underhand methods to enslave the young people of the Lowveld.

When I was appointed editor towards the end of last year, I announced a major anti-drug campaign to fight this venom that destroys young lives. The news team will investigate, expose and name and shame the people at the helm of the drug syndicates in the Lowveld, but we need our readers’ support in this quest.

There is an urgent need for more respected drug-rehabilitation centres and stepdown facilities to help and support those rehabilitated victims to return to normal society. It is not easy and they do need the moral and professional support of the wider community to face a new life without drugs.

No one who has not been down that road would be able to envisage the hell a drug addict has to go through to beat the habit. Listen to Alice Cooper’s Poison to get an idea of the pain and suffering of a drug addict through the words of a rock artist.

We need the help and support of the business sector, schools, churches, religious groups and the general community at large to join hands with us in this fight. We support the work being done by the dedicated law enforcers and prosecutors putting the culprits behind bars. But we also resent the corrupt elements within us that collude with the dark forces of the drug underbelly of our society. We will name and shame them.

Please email any suggestions and information to dewet@lowvelder.co.za