In the fourth programme of the series, Neil Nunes visits Dominica. The island has no rehab facilities although officials recognise the need for one in the long term. In the meantime their efforts are focused on prevention. But the message doesn’t always get through. However, it’s not just users or potential users who feel the impact of drugs. Many people, such as the “drug mules” who smuggle them out of the Caribbean, are also badly affected.
The main anti-drug organisation in Dominica is the National Drugs Prevention Unit (NPDU). NDPU Field Officer
Malcolm St Rose says their key approach is educating people, especially the young, about drugs. Rather than asking children to “just say no”, they use innovative approaches such as the National Drugs Quiz. The students compete for their school by being quizzed on their knowledge of drugs. The idea of the quiz is to reinforce a lot of the information that the students have been given during drug prevention classes in school aiming to help them make informed choices later in life.
Despite the prevention efforts of the NDPU, some people become hooked. Because there are no rehab facilities in Dominica, some addicts have kicked their habit in the most unlikely places.
Conrad Hazel only managed to stop taking drugs when he went to prison. He started using marijuana but ended up abusing alcohol and cocaine too. Eventually his life became hell - he “lost focus”. He’s been in prison for the last 12-and-a-half years but he still hasn’t figured out exactly what went wrong.
The
Hibiscus Trust is a charity that was set up to support hundreds of Jamaican women who are imprisoned in the UK for smuggling drugs. The Kingston branch was set up to help the women when they get back after being released, and also the families of these women while they’re in prison in the UK.
“Julie” has just returned to Jamaica and is trying to set up a catering business with the help of Hibiscus. Like many of the women caught up in trafficking drugs abroad, poverty was a major factor. She smuggled drugs after a family emergency left her penniless, and with no way of looking after her two children. She doesn’t completely regret prison, as it taught her a lot about what drugs do to other people, but she says she’d definitely never smuggle drugs again.
