The use and sale of synthetic drugs by school-aged children is worrying and disturbing, the Customs Anti-Narcotics Unit (CANU) has said in its 2018 annual report, which related that the majority of those drugs are smuggled through the Suriname border.
In a summary of the report that was released to the media on Thursday, the anti-drug agency said that for 2018, it was called in to probe several discoveries of ecstasy in schools in regions Three and Four. The agency discovered the use of ecstasy in five schools.
“This situation certainly is very disturbing… it was established that most of the synthetic drugs are coming through the ports shared with Guyana’s eastern neighbour [Suriname] and the unit has been in collaboration with relevant counterparts to address this development,” CANU’s Deputy Head, Lesley Ramlall said in the report.
In an effort to combat this new phenomena in schools, CANU is collaborating with various stakeholders and providing educational and counselling sessions for teachers, students and parents. It was, however, highlighted that more intervention is needed to address this situation.
Ramlall had explained that while CANU is called in upon the discovery of the drug in schools, it is cautious as it is dealing with minors. In this regard, he said that officers would work through the Ministry of Education during the course of their investigation.
A former School of the Nations student in February was sentenced to three years in jail after he pleaded guilty to trafficking ecstasy pills. Larry John Adams, 20, admitted to the charge that on February 20th, 2019, at Princes Street, Georgetown, he had eight MDMA pills for the purpose of trafficking in his possession. MDMA is Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, which is known commonly as ecstasy.
In 2018, 532.8 grammes of ecstasy was seized by CANU officers.
The drug agency also made significant strides in the seizure of cannabis last year. A record of 543.256 kilogrammes of cannabis was seized as against 123.799 kilogrammes in 2017. Ramlall, in the report, explained that the increase in seizures was a result of an increase in smuggling of the narcotic between Berbice, Linden and Georgetown.
“The unit has managed to dismantle the main ring that was involved in this activity from Berbice and also effectively curtailed the smuggling from Linden,” the report stated. Most of the smuggled cannabis was destined for CARICOM countries.
It was pointed out that the anti-drug agency recorded a spike in smuggling
during the June to August period.
In addition, the report stated that CANU seized a total of 171.58 kilogrammes of cocaine against 291.089 kilogrammes of cocaine confiscated in 2017.
Further, the report highlighted that the agency was able to confiscate 304 grammes of heroin as opposed to 1.602 kilogrammes seized in 2017. This shows a sharp decrease for 2018.
One hundred grammes of crystal methamphetamine and 39 grammes of cannabis seeds were also seized during the course of the year.