Good progress in community’s fight against drugs |09 June 2009

The programme – which will empower the residents to take back their community and keep it safe and drug-free – is an initiative of the Campaign for Awareness, Resilience and Education against drug and alcohol abuse (Care) in collaboration with other partners in the fight against drugs.

Les Mamelles was identified as the starting ground for the pilot exercise because of the high drug use in the district.
Apart from reinforcing prevention and enforcement efforts, the new move strengthened collaboration to fight drugs in the community.

During a recent meeting at Care House in Victoria, those involved in the project gave their feedback and proposals to improve it and make it more efficient.

The session, led by Care director Noella Gonthier, was attended by elected MNA for Les Mamelles Bernard Georges, representatives of the National Drug Enforcement Agency, police force, churches, district administration office, Housing Finance Company (HFC), civil society groups, media and school leaders.

As has been stressed before, the enforcement agencies are to take the lead in weeding out drug trafficking and related crimes, while the other coalition partners will come up with prevention, intervention and community support.

In that line, the newly introduced community policing has brought better supervision and law enforcement in certain areas.
More patrols and the active presence of police officers in the district have helped to reduce trafficking points, and information collected from the public has led to several important arrests.

Another partner playing an important role in the project is the HFC which, working with the district administration office, has demolished old houses that were used as drug traffickers’ hideouts.

The company also enforced rules of agreements with tenants to prevent any trafficking in housing estates.
Other activities carried out included after-school healthy living sessions, residents’ neighbourhood watch, and district educational, health and social events.