rp21 situational analysis - Pacific Health Voices

Law enforcement
The National Narcotics Control Board Act
1992 established the National Narcotics
Control Bureau; it is responsible for coordination
of all aspects of the response against
drugs. 604 Overwhelmingly, the response to
illicit drug use in PNG is punitive, focused
on supply and demand reduction. Provinciallevel
bans and eradication schemes dominate
the response. Examples include a September
2008 protest march against drug and
homebrew dealers by up to 10 000 people
in Kundiawa, Chimbu province. The march,
endorsed by the provincial police commander,
included schoolchildren, public servants,
hospital patients, police, correction officers
and prisoners, women and youth equipped
with placards motivated by the view that the
removal of marijuana and homebrew from
the community would help to end law and
order problems. Identified problems included
rape, stealing, murder and the rise of HIV
and AIDS. 605
Other provincial-level interventions have
included a PNG Telikom initiative in 2001
which provided for the installation of telephone
lines with six extensions free of charge,
manned 24 hours a day at the Boroko police
station, for the public to call the police and
pass on any information that may lead to the
arrest of drug offenders. 606 The program was
launched on the International Day against
Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking and was
part of the increased concern about the rise
in marijuana cultivation, trafficking and
consumption.
Reports suggest that PNG has continued to
struggle in responding to narcotics cultivation
and trafficking despite formation of
the Bureau, with former staff continuing to
receive substantial salaries, and other ‘shady
payments’, reports of want of financial probity
and drugs for guns deals, to name but
a few issues. 607 Calls for independence and
change in staff have been made, with proposed
staffing to include young women,
doctors, lawyers, teachers and church representatives.
Reports in 2004 noted problems
with Viagra, cannabis, ecstasy and cocaine,
in addition to problems of drug trafficking,
human smuggling, money laundering and
the sale of illicit drugs. There have been more
than 13 police commissioners since independence,
equalling one police commissioner
125
604 National Narcotics Control Bureau: (last updated
May 2006).
605 10 000 In PNG march against drugs, homebrew. Papua New Guinea Post-Courier, 29 September
2008. Available at: (accessed
June 2009).
606 Alison Anis (2001), PNG Telikom to install free police lines in campaign against drugs, The
Independent, 31 May 2001. Available at: .
607 Narcotics Bureau mired in corruption, The National, 8 November 2004. Available at:
(accessed January
2009); for background on drug control in PNG, see also H. Ivarature (c.1997), Drugs, Arms and
National Security: the global becomes local in Papua New Guinea. Research report: Militarisation,
Economic Penetration and Human Rights in the Pacific series. Uppsala, Sweden: Life & Peace
Institute. Available at: .
Papua New Guinea