High-potency marijuana continues to find its way into Guyana from North and South America, with some of the shipments arriving through the country’s ports of entry and, in some cases, alongside illegal firearms, according to Head of the Customs Anti-Narcotic Unit (CANU), James Singh.
Speaking with reporters on the sidelines of an event on Wednesday, Singh said the issue is not new and that law enforcement agencies have been monitoring the trend for some time.
“As AG mentioned, and this is not something new, we would have spoken about it before, where marijuana with what we call a higher THC, comes from other regions within South America as well as North America,” Singh said.
He explained that authorities have intercepted the drug after it entered Guyana through the airport and in barrels.
“We’ve seen it being imported through the airport and in barrels. In this instance, we’ve seen it come with several high-powered weapons – rifles and pistols – and that investigation now is a joint investigation with CANU, SOCU, and other agencies,” he added.
According to Singh, the high-THC marijuana has been circulating for some time, with some shipments labelled as medicinal marijuana.
“It’s been for a while. In some cases, the marijuana is labeled as medicinal marijuana, so we’ve seen it come from North America into Guyana, has a higher THC, some of it is consumed here and some of it is transshipped out of Guyana,” he said.
Meanwhile, Singh said CANU continues to expand its public awareness campaign aimed at educating young people about the dangers of drugs and other harmful substances.
“It’s ongoing, it’s a work in progress. We have stakeholders from the private sector, also Ministry of Education, Ministry of Health, several schools and others. So it’s more of awareness and we’re working to develop a program to sensitize the youths about the dangers of drugs and other harmful substances – alcohol, others,” he stated.
He said the programme is not limited to communities considered high-risk, noting that CANU is taking a proactive approach by engaging schools and communities across the country.
“The more schools we can visit, the more communities we can visit, the more regions… we’re doing some of the programs in Region Nine, in the hinterland areas, in Berbice, in Georgetown. There’s no specific area,” Singh said.
He added that some schools have also contacted CANU directly to request drug awareness sessions for their students.
