SYDNEY SAIZE RECENTLY IN NYANGA
Drug addicts are not willing to enrol at rehabilitation facilities being offered by the government amid calls by communities that they were not aware of the service.
Nyanga social worker, Muchaneta Mazaiwana, told a community meeting held last week that there has been “zero uptake” of the programme from drug and substance abusers or addicts to “come forward for help or rehabilitation at centres dotted around the country”.
“The government made a clarion call in all the districts for families with individuals that need rehabilitation to come and register for help but that has not yielded anything,” Mazaiwana said.
She said it appeared some families were ashamed of coming forward with their problems in public.
The most commonly taken substances in Zimbabwe are glue, broncleer, marijuana and crystal meth, among others.
However, some residents of Nyanga expressed ignorance on the call by the government to enrol those with addictions with institutions that can take care of their condition.
“We are not aware that there are such facilities that can take care of those that have addictions. We have so many such cases in our communities of youths and even the old that are on hard drugs among other substances which has become a menace for us,” Memory Ngwarati, a local from Kuchera village in Nyanga said.
Ngwarati said most unemployed youths in their area resort to substance abuse as a pastime, ultimately engaging into criminal activities among other miscellaneous practices.
“Criminal cases have been on the rise in the area and the culprits are these youths that are high on drugs, alcohol and other narcotic substances,” she said.
Another villager, Prisca Saruchera, told Business Times there has to be increased law enforcement to get rid of the people that sell the illegal drugs and prohibited alcohol.
“Some of the substances known as Mutoriro are just sold publicly, including other drugs known as Guka and there is no remorse from those that are selling these things to our youngsters,” Saruchera said.
She added: “My appeal would be to the law enforcement agents to clampdown of known zones that sell the drugs and seize and arrest the culprits. They are known and we know the individuals and the places they operate from, hence what is simply required is to work together to stop this rot.”
