High over Madang: the marijuana culture infiltrating PNG

BERNARD YEGIORA | Twitter

MARIJUANA IS CHANGING THE FACE of Papua New Guinea society. We now have more red eyed young men and women on the streets who are in a little world of their own.

From my sources on the streets there are very many locations in Madang where drug dealers sell marijuana.

There is no single distributor and no person one has control of the drug trade here in Madang. Perhaps the day is near when a drug lord will create a cartel.

The front walkway of J & Z supermarket is one hotspot for drugs, while the bus stop in front of Modilon is another haven for dealers.

There are 18 hotspots in Madang: Balasiko, 4 Mile, DCA, Sisiak and the list goes on.

One kina for a small pack the size of M&Ms or Smarties.

The marijuana is coming from Kainantu, Goroka and Simbu. The Kainantu stuff is A grade.

Drug mules are packing marijuana inside sweet potato and cabbage bags. The drug is dried and packed in empty 5-kg rice plastic bags.

The coded language for trading is also evolving at a rapid pace. A pack is now referred to as cold leftovers, dust, wasa, kumu gras and other euphemisms.

The police seem powerless in the fight against the use of drugs, while drug dealers seem to be a protected species who roam the streets freely.

There must be questions asked about how effective is the drug squad in the Royal PNG Constabulary. The provincial police commander needs to come up with strategies.

Bernard Yegiora is a lecturer in PNG Studies at Divine Word University and an Associate of Jackson PR Associates Pty Ltd 

Comments

[Steve Gallagher]

Today lo town, ol mangi holtim wanpla highlands man a got a ten kg bag of marijuana. I walked past the main market with my clauzie and I saw the boy who was arguing with the highlander with the marijuana.

I walked too close and noticed that that guy was my save face so I was just watching them arguing. It was not long when the group of fellow squads came and threatened the highands man with the drugs, telling them they gonna take him to the police or call them.

Sadly the man handed over the 10kg bags of marijuana to them, I really feel for that man coz I know that he needs it to make money for his living.

I wonder how these staff handed up in Madang while we have highway patrols and authorities to to monitor the flow of marijannee. Last the another fellow told me that some guys went up to highlands and came with a stock feed bag of marijuana.

Can the government step up to handle the fuckin flow of the shit! I'm tired.

[Steve Gallagher]

Bro Sai Koni - You right, marijuana consumption is a big issue in our country that is ignored by the government. The government through its law enforcers officials have tried to stop the flow if it but they can't and even they do smoke it and smuggle it too!

Marujuana has been legaized in some countries and many people make good money out of it. Some countries even export marijuana and our politicans are also involved in exporting marijuana and they are now millionaires.

I have spoken to some youths at tri line and banana block, Willie Pukpuks corner, and they told me that it is very difficult to stop the flow of it coz people have benefited from it.

So Sai I assume that marijuana will still flow and it will become a major cash crop for people who have no access to other means of making money.

Though marijuana or marijane as they called it was illegal in PNG, but you can see that people are smoking it on the streets, at home, in school. The policemen, soldiers, politicans and even the judge smoke it too.

I think the best way forward is to legalize it and let PNG export it so we can make billons of kina to cater for the growning population of PNG.

The one who wants to smoke will smoke it, and those who do not want it will not take. Its normal in todays real life situation.

Some who live in high place will not understand how and why marijuana is in the community but people like you and I who live in lower place will understand.

[Simon Koni]

Marijuana is a national problem that needs fixing and every bodyneeds to talk about it.

I am afraid our country in the next decade or so will most likely be overruled by people who smoke marijuana.

The truth is that about 75% of our total population have tried it and some are still on it without people knowing.

This problem will keep on rising unless the government come up with such solution as putting everybody on payrolls, because its pretty clear that this problem is linked with our economic problem and the cost of living and all that.

Nothing is too big to address it just needs time, cooperation and maybe new policy.

[George Kuias]

I agree with the discussion, smoking of marijuana (Maryjane)as it is known among youths in the country is of major concern.

The primary, secondary and even tertiary institutions had certain groups that experience the feeling of Maryjane.

They knew the street dealer men, they knew their little smoking groups and even others. They had their own sign language to communicate.

From where I reside in a compound in Madang, almost majority of the youths are Maryjane smokers.Believe it or not even the university students are also in that bundle and the story goes on...

[Bernard Yegiora]

Jocabeth, 20 toea is very cheap.

Marijuana from the area you come from is considered as 'A grade'.

[Bernard Yegiora]

Thank you Steve, the information you shared via your comment is very intriguing.

Time to do some investigative work.

[Bernard Yegiora]

PMV buses travelling down from the Highlands have changed their travel time.

Today, most of them travel in the night to avoid police check points at Masul, Yonki and occasionally at Ramu. They arrive around 5 - 6 am in the morning in Madang.

Drivers and their crews (the ones who collect money from the passengers) benefit by getting money from most of the drug mules. The start of a very interesting relationship.

With the lack of employment opportunities more and more people will get into the drug trade.

[Steve Gallagher Darong]

I am from Madang and I am totally agree with Bernard. I have lots of friends from settlements in Madang and othher rural communities and for years I have observed how marijuana is smuggled from the Highlands down to Madang.

From what I heard from the smugglers and dealermen, they told me that if you want to smugggle marujuana from Highlands down to Madang, you need to have at least K300 extra in hand in case if the police caught you. They told me that policemen in Madang will relese you free if you give them the money, and I told they what about the marijuana and they said, "the policemen will take this marijuana and give it to someone in the street to sell it, so they will share the money". This is what really happening in Madang, believe it or not, its real.

Some of the marijuana sellers in Madang have connections with police, they smuggle marijuana on police vehicle, 10 to 20 10kg bags of marijuana to mandang town and then distributed to all parts of Madang.

I think that I'm reaveling the secret so I pose here and someting for authorities to think about it.

[Jocabeth Yuasi]

Marijuana is a major problem. We all know it's illegal to sell and smoke weed, however the Royal PNG Constabulary Drug Squad is doing nothing.

People say selling marijuana is fast money and they earn a lot. Therefore, they plant and give it special treatment and care.

It is not happening in Madang alone. In Henganofi in Eastern Highlands Province, men smoke it publicly.

They sell it for 20 toea in the market like but the police are doing nothing, they turn a blind eye to it.

What they have been doing recently is boiling the roots and leaves and drinking the liquid.It's so disgusting!

When I asked men and few women why they take in marijuana, most said "it makes us feel good, makes us forget our problems and makes us feel we are in another world."

What I concluded was that most people take it because of the effect it has on their emotions. As a result, there are many mentally affected young men everywhere in the country.

[Norris Wangian]

According to a UN ranking (CBC News, 9 July 2007), PNG tops the list on drug prevalence and consumption.

The situation is getting worse in recent research. At that rate, it won't be long before drug cartels will pop out like in Colombia, Mexico, etc.

The signs are already displayed on the streets of major towns and cities where the state and law abiding citizens have lost control to drug users.

Simply we call them tugs, influenced by cannabis.

[David Kitchnoge]

Agreed Bernard - desperation has them on the edge and marijuana simply tips them over.

A frightening scenario is developing.

[Bernard Yegiora]

David, Marijuana mix together with the environment these young men were brought up in have shaped the way they think.

I had a similar experience a few years ago with so called street boys in Gerehu stage 4 when I was at UPNG.

I went around with them, bought beer for them, knew their names.

But one day out of the blue they decided to come and rob my father's house. Thankfully the attempt was unsuccessful due to my small brother's intervention.

After the incident I found it very hard to understand such insane behaviour. Their ability to reason out what is wrong from what is right seemed to be overpowered by their desire to survive.

[David Kitchnoge]

Marijuana is a national problem and must be dealt with.

I have fallen victim to this substance two months ago here in Moresby when two boys from my own street whom I know by name turned up with two pistols inside my yard, unmasked and unashamedly ejected me from my car and took my car away.

They were high on drugs and just didn’t know what they were doing, whom they were doing it to and what consequences their actions would bring upon both me and they themselves.

This is basically what Marijuana does to its users. It reduces them to no more than another roaming animal who acts on impulse with no hint whatsoever of human rationality.

No family and no community is safe when its members start showing such irrational, instinctive and unpredictable behaviour.

[Paul Oates]

Evidence is now emerging of the serious effects of long term pot usage on the brain. The strains of pot are I understand also far more potent than those around many years ago.

The real issue is why people desire drugs at all. Given that's an issue too big to address, there desperately needs a public awareness campaign by the PNG Health authorities to educate people in the effects this drug, seen by many as a so called 'soft drug', have on the body.