YOUNGSTERS FELL VICTIMS TO SYABU MENACE

By : DR NICHOLAS JAMES GUNTOBON

A FEW DAYS ago I received another report from a father in Keningau that he was worried about his 15-year old son being dragged into a syabu menace which had been going on within Keningau for quite sometime without any sign of abating.

The Chinese father told me that his son hang around with some of his friends, some are relatives, who are already suspected by families of taking syabu.

I have received similar reports before and I took sometime interviewing people and I found out that this syabu menace I a real threat to our families in not only in Keningau but other smaller towns in Sabah.

A check with the courts records would tell us that there had been an increasing trend of our youths, some in early teens, getting involved in taking syabu which is very expensive.

I dare say that millions of hard-earned ringgits in Keningau and surrounding areas are lost annually to this menace. We also see more teenagers falling victim to syabu addiction. And once they are addicted, they will do anything to get money to purchase the expensive illegal drug.

I have also received reports that bigger cities like Kota Kinabalu, Sandakan and Tawau and even Penampang areas had been turned into syabu havens by syndicates who must have raked in hundreds of millions if not billions of riinggits or the past few years.

These syndicates also are said to be working with international syndicates and in some cases Sabahans had been apprehended in foreign countries smuggling drugs including syabu.

State Reform Party (STAR) views this issue seriously. We call on suspecting parents, concerned citizens to cooperate with the police in apprehending those involved in this menace.

There is also a very disturbing allegations that certain enforcement authority are in the know of movements of this syndicates but this menace just goes on without ending. I do not want to believe such allegations, having seen how syabu made families suffered or destroyed.

STAR also call on the State Drug Prevention Action Council and the Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation (MCPF) to look into this syabu menace in Sabah and work on ways to resolve this issue or prevent it from spiraling into an uncontrolled menace in years ahead where more public money will have be spent to address it.