H.E President Joseph N. Boakai Sr.
President of the Republic of Liberia
This is one of the heaviest disasters to fall upon Liberia 🇱🇷 in such troubling times (Kush) . This is tearing up the hearts of families and destroying the foundation of our country. We should all rather mourn than shift blames.
As the Executive Director Association Of Progressive Youth of Liberia – APYL and a Drug abuse Advocate, I personally want to congratulate you for the strong stance of fighting this menace of Drug abuse in Liberia.
Mr. President, making illicit drug abuse a national emergency clearly shows that your government is now in the interests of the young people and the future of this generation. You have finally made my heart to rest after years of advocating for drug abuse policy and reform, if this is not business as usual .
The loss of lives among young people from drug abuse is heartbreaking. We are loosing man power for peace , progress and development.
Mr. President, within the last decades, the abuse of drug has grown from essentially a local police and LDEA problem into a serious national threat to the personal health and safety of hundreds of thousands Liberians for which we have over the years been calling the attention of citizens, national Government and international partners.
A national awareness of the gravity for this situation is needed; a new urgency and concerted national policy are needed at the national government level to begin and cope with this growing menace to the general welfare of the Liberian people.
The amount of youths arrested involving the use of illicit drug have rose very high, half of those now being arrested for the illicit use of drug and other dangerous substances are under 17 years of age.
Montserrado county alone has an estimated records of some 30,000 plus drug addicts, and there are hundreds of youths joining everyday. Not to mentioned other counties and gold mining concession areas. These unofficial statistics are only the tip of an iceberg whose dimensions we can only surmise. (We need a scientific and evidence based data collection survey)
The number of drug addicts across Liberia is now estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands. Another estimate is that several thousands of Liberia High schools and college students have at least experimented with kush , marijuana, hashish, Sisha, Tramadol, Tar White and Cocaine.
It is now very much doubtful that a parent can’t send a child to high school or college today without exposing the young man or woman to drug abuse. Parents must also be concerned about the availability and use of such drugs in our schools.
The habit of the drug addict (Zogo) is not only a danger to himself, but a threat to the community where he lives and the nation at-large. These dangerous substances have been cited as a primary cause of the enormous increase in street crimes over the last decades in Liberia.
As the addict’s tolerance for drugs increases, his demand for drugs rises, and the cost of his habit grows. Which is hundreds of Liberian dollars a day. Since the Drug dealers are there to give him the value of the materials he snatched and hijacked from people everyday two – three times for which he is forced to commit and maintain his/her habits ( Arm robbery , prostitution and other crimes). An addict will reduce himself to any offense, any degradation in order to acquire the drugs he craves (Jun) .
With this we cannot consider drug addiction to be law enforcement problem alone. This requires effective control and cooperation of many agencies and line Ministries with support from the Liberian people.
I am humble to recommend these Eleven (11) specific steps to your Administration and these are counter-moves against this growing national problem.
1. Legislation
To effectively meet the narcotic and dangerous drug problems at the National level, there should be a comprehensive legislative proposal to control these dangerous substances. This measure will place in a single statute, a revised and modern plan for control. Current laws in this field are inadequate and outdated including the one with the senate because it didn’t meet the public consent.
I strongly believed that the current drug law the senate passed should be send back to the Liberian people and a team of professionals and experts on drug laws and policy for proper review before passage for a fair, rational and necessary approach to the total drug problem.
There should be an emergency budgetary allocations come 2026 to establish a drug abuse rehabilitation centers in all the counties to rehabilitate drug addicts( Zogos) and get them off the streets with regular budgetary support in this direction .
When this is done, it will tighten the regulatory controls and protect the public against illicit diversion of these drug from legitimate channels. It will insure greater accountability and better record-keeping. It will give law enforcement stronger and better tools that are sorely needed so that those charged with enforcing these laws can do so more effectively.
2. International and Regional cooperation
Most of these illicit substances and dangerous drug consumed in Liberia are produced abroad and clandestinely brought into Liberia at an alarming rate. Government of Liberia needs to create more avenues for better cooperation with international and regional partner countries on how to stop these contrabands from coming into the country through law enforcement meetings.
3. Liberia illegal importation and Suppression
We must now exert serious efforts to eliminate these dangerous drug at every port of entry coupled with new efforts to intercept them at all borders. There should be new measures to guard the nation borders and ports against the alarming influx of illicit drug from abroad. There is a recognized need for more professional and trained man power in the bureau of customs and LDEA to carry out such huge task. For we see a lot of untrained and unprofessional people in the LDEA who are former and current traffickers, dealers and consumers as well. ( we can’t put monkeys in charge of bananas )
There is a need to set up a Special Presidential TaskForce (Action Taskforce) with passionate young and qualified Liberians who understands the need for drug eradication in Liberia and declare a War on drug. The TaskForce will only reports to the office of the President and conduct comprehensive study of the problem of unlawful trafficking in narcotics and dangerous drugs.
The TaskForce will also conduct a study and recommend plan of action, for immediate and long-term implementation, designed to substantially reduce the illicit trafficking of illicit drug in Liberia.
One purpose of the Taskforce will be to examine the existing programs of law enforcement agencies concerned with the problem in an effort to improve their coordination and efficiency. The Taskforce will also undertake a frontal operation attack on the problem. There are high profits in the illicit market for those who smuggle narcotics and dangerous drugs, therefore uncompromising measures are needed.
4. Education
The high level of ignorance and misinformation have crippled the proper evaluation and solution of the drug problem in Liberia, causing the lack of scientific information on the subject matters.
Everyone now fighting drug abuse with no thematic area of focus. We have been divided on the issues of religion, greed, self interest, political will and power . These are all conflicting issues that has been filled with rumors of harsh judgment, minimal experience and sometimes no experience or knowledge at all .
The volume of definitive medical and scientific data remains small and the possible danger to the health or well-being of even a casual user of illicit drug is too serious to allow ignorance to prevail and for this information the gap remains open.
Liberian needs to know what dangers and what risks are inherent in the use of the various kinds of illicit drug readily available in illegal markets today.
Mr. President, we appealed that you mandate the Ministers of Health and Education with assistance from the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency- LDEA, to gather all authoritative information on the subject and to compile a balanced and objective educational program to bring the facts to every Liberian especially our young people.
With such information on hand, the overwhelming majority of students and young people can be trusted to make a prudent judgment as to their personal course of conduct.
5. Comprehensive Research
Data is information, information is knowledge and knowledge is power. Gathering of existing data, it is essential that we acquire new knowledge in the field. We must know more about both the short and long term effects of the use of dangerous illicit drug being taken in such quantities by so many of our young people.
We need more study, as well to find the key to releasing our young people and future generations from the bonds of dependency forged by any continued drug abuse.
The Ministry of Health, Mental Health Department has the primary responsibility in this area and there must be more budgetary allocation to expand existing efforts to acquire new knowledge and a broader understanding in this entire area to mitigate the risk.
6. National Rehabilitation program
We are all aware and cognizant of the alarming drug situation and the risks involved, including those of arrest and prosecution, the psychologically dependent regular users and the physically addicted are genuinely sick people. While this sickness cannot be an excuse for the crimes they commit, it does help to explain them. Society has an obligation both to itself and to these people to help them break the chains of their dependency.
We are aware of private run rehab facilities in Liberia and it will be prudent enough for National government to give some financial support to those institutions and organizations running these programs.
There is no other time but now to have a National Rehabilitation program in Liberia and to safe the future generations of this glorious land of ours.
7. Training
To adequately succeed in the control of drug and crimes in Liberia, there is a need for considerable expertise and training. There have been couples of training but there is a need for more by National government to train personnel’s, local community residents, Local police officers, forensic Chemists , High school principals , campus security officers and any sector that can help in the fight against drug abuse and trafficking.
8. Accountability and transparency
Mr President, there is a need for an immediate audit of the Ministry of Health, Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency – LDEA, the Liberia National Police and Bureau of Immigration and Neutralization. Because these are key institutions that are and have been deeply involved in the fight against illicit drug trafficking.
Before we allocate more funding to these institutions there must be a full audit .
9. Community and Parents Responsibilities:
Community and parents have a key role to play in the fight against drug abuse in Liberia . Parents are sitting and allowing their children to get into drug under their watchful eyes .
Parents should pay more attention to their children and invest their resources and time monitoring them . It is clear that most parents just pay school fees and don’t make follow ups on school campuses to find out their child or children behavior.
In most cases parents don’t even check the school bags of the child/ Children when they get home from school or to have a conversation with them .
All these are responsible for the alarming drug situation and sometimes broken family structure in Liberia and for this reason the youths are left vulnerable and expose to dangerous substances early.
Parents need to wake up.
10. National Round Table Stakeholder Dialogue
National government must support a National dialogue on the drug abuse and trafficking alarming situation.
The purpose of this round table dialogue will be several:
Firstly, to obtain firsthand information, more accurate data, on the scope of the drug problem at that level.
Secondly, to discuss the specific areas where we can directly put assistance and aid that can be most useful.
Thirdly, to exchange ideas and evaluate mutual policies. The end result we hope will be a more coordinated effort that will bring us visible progress for the first time in an alarming situation.
11. Religious institutions (Churches and mosque)
The religious institutions are the conscious and spiritual guide of the society. These religious institutions should not sit and watch this living hell on earth. They should try and divert some of their time and resources to helping drug addicts getting back to normality.
These then are the first eleven steps propose recommendations towards the alarming drug situation in Liberia. .
Mr. President, many of these young people depend upon the support of your government. I am appealing , with this message, that your administration act swiftly and favorably on these recommendations with a special budgetary requests required if our efforts are to be successful.
I am confident that this will get your attention, that I will be call upon to share with you the grave concern over this critical problem, that Government will do all that is necessary to mount, continue a new and effective national program aimed at eradicating this rising sickness in our land.
May God Almighty, Guard , Protect and Bless us all. In Union strong success is sure.
Mr. Reuben Bobby Logan
Executive Director
Association of Progressive Youth of Liberia
Drug Abuse Advocate
Focus person- West Africa Network of Civil Society on Substance abuse (WANCSA)
Security intelligent and Forensic Expert
UNODC,EU, AU & ECOWAS Trained
Treatment Expert on Quality Assurance
Cybersecurity Professional
With high esteem I remain.
The Son of a Deer 🦌 Hunter .
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