By Mataeliga Pio Sioa
Men and women armed with deadly guns!
Bulletproof vests and face cloth wraps similar to what terrorists wear to hide their identities!
White 4-wheel drive-pick up trucks, escorted by police cars with swirling blue/red lights!
Heavens above what are all these about?
Anyone who stumbles onto this kind of scene for the first time and be held in shock is a normal, typical first reaction
No they were not from a movie or breaking news footage either of terrorist activities in some war torn region of the middle east.
This was real life as it happened in the heart of Apia last week.
The sights and scenes the stunned public saw as they watched from a safe distance, were of the returning police task force after a successful illegal drug raid.
Piled up at the back of the pick up trucks were loads of illegal marijuana plants, yanked from the roots up to the leaves, from secret farms in the Faleatiu and Satapuala villages.
A young man, probably in his early 20s, was also seen escorted in handcuffs into the police building.
The pick up trucks were backed up to the side of the building and their illegal cargo carted in tarpaulins into a room.
The plants were spread out on the floor to make an impressive display.
This was the ‘shock backdrop’ that would make believers of all who scoffed at the fears illegal drugs are now posing for Samoa.
Are the dreaded changes of this outlawed trade becoming real enough? Of course they are. The signs have been obvious for a long while now.
When police officers are forced to bear arms and mask their faces so as not to be identified for fear of retaliation from drug dealers, that says a lot.
Our illegal drugs issue has become a simple, straight forward truth we can no longer deny.
Drug dealers are gaining an increasingly firm foothold in Samoa.
The first person to admit that as fact is the Commissioner of Police himself.
He was not talking about our easily grown marijuana plants. Meth or ice as they say in the streets is growing in popularity also and continues to do so.
The Commissioner also confessed that the deadly rampage by the COVID-19 pandemic has not stopped the drug growers and dealers from doing business.
Yes it is disturbing to hear that coming from him. The admission that he does not have enough police to cope with the drug problem is even more disturbing.
He is on the right track, however, by encouraging his undermanned law enforcers to work smart.
What he rightly pointed out is the police networking with other special community groups with direct influence on keeping law and order.
The traditional leadership of chiefs and orators are at the top of the list. We all know what they are capable of in keeping law and order in a village environment.
Church leaders add the fear of the Lord to all the drug dealing heathens along with the users and abusers.
Dedicated groups like women committees can be trusted to target their membership for the care of their families as responsible mothers.
The Ministries of Education and Health were signaled out for their direct influence on the community.
What the Commissioner painted is the larger extension of the policing work necessary to be effective.
What the bigger picture holds for working smart is more than just about the police trying to cope with their limited staff numbers.
If it is a community issue like the threat of ruin by illegal drugs on our loved ones, then we each have a role to play for our own good.
As a village chief or orator, father, teacher or a health worker it is not enough to just know what role we can play. Get up and play it.
The Commissioner credited the chiefs and orators of Faleatiu and Satapuala for their support in the marijuana farm raid last week and others before that.
More and much louder credit is needed even from as high up as the Prime Minster himself singing the praises of the chiefs and orators publicly.
Church leaders in each religious denomination should raise the illegal drug fears of the community in prayers.
Urge fellow Servants of the Lord to pound the pulpit with the damnation of the drug hell in their respective congregations.
Signal out the drug dealers. If there are any in the villages blast them with the fear of the fires of the inferno if they keep to their evil ways.
There are no secrets in the villages on who is what or what is who. This is a community environment where families are close knit.
Tap into that priceless of information network.
Teachers have direct access to children in the classrooms the same as parents at home. Nothing more to be said there.
We have to do what we have to do. Men and women who jump out of long white police convoys, with deadly machine guns and faces covered up like common terrorists are not from another planet.
One of them could be your brother, sister, son or daughter. Thank Heavens they were able to jump out safely like they did last week.
What if they were carried out? Keep that thought.
To work smart we need brains. Knowledge is a blessing.
Yes of course it is Your day of rest but we just wanted to thank you Lord for your precious gift.