SUVA, Jan. 11 (Xinhua) -- Fiji's national police said Monday it has set up a counter narcotics bureau which enables them to have adequate resources in fighting illicit drug dealings and abuse.
According to Fiji Broadcasting Corporation (FBC), the police's Acting Commissioner Rusiate Tudravu said the initiative is a further step taken to curb the import, sale and consumption of hard drugs such as methamphetamine.
Tudravu said that in recent years, the police have conducted a lot of raids nationwide, seizing hard drugs worth millions of U.S. dollars.
The newly established anti-drug unit is staffed by experienced police officers, he said.
"The unit is one that we would like to be independent. Dealing with hard drugs the money that is involved in it so we would like to have matured police officers that there. People with integrity that will honor the appointment that is done to them," Tudravu said.
Tudravu said that currently, a team of police officers are combing areas in Kadavu, Fiji's fourth largest island and Keiyasi on western side of the main island of Viti Levu in drug operations.
Ilai Moceica, Fiji's deputy secretary for defence and national security said earlier at a narcotics workshop held in Fiji's capital Suva that 100 patients were admitted to a local psychiatric hospital from May 2017 to April 2018 due to substance abuse.
The most commonly abused substances on the island nation are marijuana, methamphetamine, cigarettes, kava and alcohol, Moceica said.
Moceica urged to deem substance abuse as a national problem in Fiji and seek strategic solutions. Enditem