Harsher penalties, including life sentence for all drug dealers.

Families, youth and our country is destroyed by drugs. No bail, No parole for drug dealers. Life for Life. Laws on drugs must change. We SAY NO TO DRUGS!

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Everything about drug abuse is painful; be it degradation, mental disorders, criminality, violence, alienation, sexual abuse and promiscuity, etc. The corrosive effects of unemployment and the abandonment and homelessness of the drug addicts are all integral factors that contribute to the perpetually increasing dispossessed citizens and communities. In drug-controlled areas, violence is also common as groups battle each other for control of the drug economy. It becomes an explosion in the battle between good and bad.

According to the South African Depression and Anxiety Group, illegal drug consumption in South Africa is double the world norm. We are of the view that the substance abuse rate in South Africa among teenagers and young adults has spiraled out of control. In fact, one in two school children have already experimented with drugs. In most cases, children start dabbling in drugs at age twelve, according to the CDA. A study carried out by researchers from the Free State University, University of Natal, University of the North, and the Institute for Special Populations Research found that South Africa has the dubious distinction of having the largest illegal drug market in sub-Saharan Africa. To make matters worse, the synergistic effects of the combinations of illegal drugs and concoctions that are being sold is lethal and are the cause of more deaths by substance overdose than any other risk factor.

The climax of the evil is that drug dealers are predatory, South African laws are too tolerant, drugs is cash-based and has the potential of “severe corrupting effects” on the police force (and criminal justice system). More concerning is that the Central Drug Authority (CDA) under the directorate of the Department of Social Development, is seemingly toothless as the government’s principal advisory authority to hold the multisector stakeholders to account for the successful implementation of the National Drug Masterplan (2019-2024 - the country’s blueprint and strategy for preventing and reducing alcohol and substance abuse and related social and economic consequences on the South African society.

As President Cyril Ramaphosa promised to intensify the fight against drugs in his inauguration speech on 19 June 2024, the danger drugs use/addiction and illicit trafficking poses on our society's well-being and economy can not be stressed good enough.  It's also the worst nightmare of many South African families, with the lives of the countless number of children and young people of South Africa seriously at stake!

We the undersigned (World Changers Candidate) would therefore like to plead with the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services to review the policy on South African criminal law on possession of dependence-producing drug suppression and jurisprudence to ensure that category one illicit drugs "for the purpose of disposal" carries far more severe penalties such as a life sentence, and the seizure of property and assets. 

For the protection of our children, we also pledge the support for the banning of alcohol advertising as alcohol and cigarettes are gateway triggers to drugs.