More than just a drop of drugs downtown
It’s estimated that up to 60% of crimes committed in South Africa involve the use of illegal substances
Four drug-related arrests were effected during the week in eMalahleni’s Central Business District (CBD), proving that the drug-demon is still far from tamed in this beautiful coal town.
On Monday May 27, just before 10:00 in the morning, the police did a search of suspicious persons in and around the taxi rank adjacent to Witbank Magistrates’s Court – the search yielded fruits almost immediately as a 35-year-old man was found with approximately R30 worth of drugs on his person. He was arrested immediately.
On Wednesday, May 29, at approximately 14:30, the police were patrolling Walter Sisulu Street in the CBD when they came across a suspicious person.
They searched the suspicious man and came across R500 worth of illegal drugs.
Walter Sisulu Street yielded more success for Witbank SAPS at about 19:30 on the same day when the police came across another dubious-looking man.
Upon searching the man’s person, the police recovered R300 worth of drugs.
In 2009, the book ‘Pan-African Issues in Drugs and Drug Control: An International Perspective,’ was published by Anita Kalunta-Crumpton – in this book, the author alleges that evidence proves that up to 15% of all South Africans have a drug problem.
Further studies have found that cannabis and alcohol are the substances most likely to be abused by South Africans, with males over the age of 20 being the biggest abusers of alcohol, while male youths are also the main abusers of cannabis.
It’s estimated that up to 60% of crimes committed in South Africa involve the use of illegal substances.
