Press Statement on teenage drug frenzy

Press Statement on teenage drug frenzy

30 September 2014

Issued by the office of the ANC EC Provincial Secretary

The increase number of young people and people in general who use drugs in the province is a serious and needling concern to us as the ANC in the province.

While the South African Police Services are policing around this issue, we want to appeal to the people of the province to play their part by reporting incidents of drug use to law enforcement agencies.

Following a story in the Daily Dispatch about a young girl who is reported to have died after taking ecstasy, we make a call to families; parents and guardians to be extra careful and make sure that their children don’t take drugs.

This is a parental responsibility, which law enforcement cant do anything without information. With this message we are trying to reach out to parents, guardians to play their part in protecting their children from drugs, alcohol and any addictive substance that is not good for them.

Parents and guardians have an immediate responsibility in protecting children from drug and substance abuse, which include alcohol.

While we send condolences to the family of the young girl who died following what is reported to be drug overdose, we must appreciate the manner in which the Daily Dispatch reported the story.

The angle taken by the paper is correct as it helps to bring the extent of the drug problem to our society, to parents and to the young people who seem to be taken by drugs.

Young people must know that drugs kill. Drugs are not cool. Drugs are bad for their health and for their future.

We are hopeful that now that the Dispatch has responsibly published this story, more young people will learn from this and stop taking drugs and substances like alcohol.

We call on the law enforcement agencies to close down any establishment that admits teenagers exposing them to drugs and alcohol.

Most importantly, we urge the SAPS to use its criminal intelligence to infiltrate the drug syndicate in our province with the intention of arresting and charging those manufacturing, distribute and selling drugs.

We all have to work together as society in protecting our children from drug and substance abuse. Because drugs are not good for anyone, for them, their families and our society.

Drugs destroy our future and kill the dreams of our young ones. We must all act responsibly by protecting our children from any danger.

We call upon our government in the province to speedily drive and support more programs that seeks to engage the disengaged young people in and out of school, we must expose our children to social development programs, education, skills development, career information, sports programmes, and innovative programs to train them to use their free time towards development activities and not drugs.

It pains us that young people die because of drugs. It hurts us that there are establishments, which allow under age children as patrons. It needles us that there are people freely making drugs with a purpose of making money from the misery of our society.

We can only defeat this when we work together as society. This is a matter that demands us to work as a collective to root it out of society.

Ends…

This statement must be attributed to the ANC EC Provincial Secretary, Cde Oscar Mabuyane.

For more information, please contact:

ANC Department of Information and Publicity Officer Pindile Miza 0837503249