Photo: Chewy Lin.
Earlier this month, President Hilda Heine and her Cabinet held a one-day summit on drugs and security with local government mayors, traditional leaders and community representatives.
Now, there is a regional call for a summit to be held next year to tackle the drug crisis impacting many islands in the Pacific.
“The Pacific region is experiencing a severe and rapid escalation in methamphetamine trafficking and domestic use, transforming from a transit zone into a significant consumer market and, to some extent, a site for local production,” said a Pacific Security College paper issued in mid-May. “This surge, driven by transnational organized crime syndicates, has created a public health and security crisis. Fiji, Tonga and Papua New Guinea face acute challenges, while all Pacific Island countries are experiencing emerging and interconnected impacts.”
Last year, the Marshall Islands experienced a flood of cocaine washing ashore at multiple atolls around the RMI — the most ever in one year. These developments prompted one RMI law enforcement official to remark: “It’s raining cocaine in RMI.”
It’s blossomed into a huge regional problem. “The surge in the trafficking, availability and use of methamphetamine across Pacific Island countries is explosive, fueling an escalating epidemic of HIV, and undermining human, national and regional security,” said the Pacific Security College report. It called for the Pacific Islands Forum to sponsor a regional summit to bring “together ministers, the health sector, law enforcement, civil society, community, and religious and traditional leaders” to craft a “regional synthetic drugs strategy.”
Demonstrating the problem in RMI, the Attorney General’s Office last year filed criminal charges against multiple individuals for crack cocaine possession and distribution.
Ross Ardern, who served with the New Zealand Police for 40 years including in the Pacific, said the proposed summit presents the opportunity for a regionally led, multi-sector response. “To put it plainly, we have an illicit drugs epidemic on our hands and this is not a problem that can be resolved by law enforcement alone,” he said.
President Heine’s message at the May 6 National Security and Substance/Drug Summit was similar. “This is our opportunity to come together as one nation to address a common challenge,” Heine told the drug summit. “Together, we can strengthen our communities, protect our youth, and ensure a safer and more secure future for the Republic of the Marshall Islands.”