Measures against drugs saw opposite result: Chief Justice

The very first steps that Maldives took against drugs saw opposite results, said Chief Justice Abdul Ghanee Mohamed yesterday.

While speaking at an official meeting held at ADh. Maamigili to have lawyers become more familiarized with the Prevention of Gang and Other Serious Offences Act, the Chief Justice said that the "mother" of all serious offenses is drugs.

He also stated that the steps taken to combat the plague of drugs saw the opposite effect and that they have to come to terms with the result.

"It is imperative we believe that the results of these steps went in the opposite direction than how we hoped. The programs we implemented that were aimed at school students saw widespread use of drugs among the youth," said the Chief Justice.

"At that point, activities surrounding the sale of drugs began in a broad way."

In an attempt to pull people away from drugs, massive campaigns went underway during former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom's administration. The "Drug Awareness Program" was such a campaign that had schools conducting activities under that initiative. A large number of parties took part in this program.

The Chief Justice said that as drugs started to make its way through society, so did a lot of crime. He also said that there is no age group nor category it hasn't spread to. Because of that societal trust towards law enforcement has fallen and that this can only be fixed by coming to terms with this reality.

The Chief Justice recognizes that the Prevention of Gang and Other Serious Offences Act is an important one and that it is needed to find solutions to present issues. Under the act, enforcement agencies and courts were given special powers, with an important message being given to institutions, which is that this issue cannot be solved through regular means, said the Chief Justice.

"As per legal scholars, if any institute that pertains to a law assembly receives special powers, the message that is being sent out is that an issue cannot be fixed through regular procedures," said the Chief Justice during the meeting.

"Even this Act has given us a message. The message is to give no quarter for gang violence and other serious offences to take place, and to find a solution." 

According to Chief Justice Ghanee, with the introduction of the new Act, there is a lot of responsibility to be upheld by investigation offices, courts and other related offices.

He went on to say that even though some institutions may have different powers, their end goals are to stop serious offenses, dole out punishment, stop repeat offenses, rehabilitate criminals and reintegrate them back into society.

The Chief Justice said that the aim of the law would not be achieved if all institutes didn't work with and share the same line of thinking. With that, he called for institutes to be sincere in their work.

He went on to say that the trust that has been lost can only be reobtained if they do as such, and to view this as their last chance to regain public trust.