Venidora Oliveira – Member of the National Parliament MP Josefa Alvares Soares urged the President of the National Parliament to schedule the debate of a drug law for Timor-Leste to prevent its future negative impacts on the youth in particular.
The MP said that drugs are a growing concern to the community and that many Timorese youths are already consuming drugs which will ruin their future.
"200 kg of drugs has been smuggled into Timor and this is very harmful because our Timorese youth can fall victim to drugs and this is why we need a debate on drugs and this needs to happen fast," added MP Soares.
The MP said also that that drugs are easily smuggled into Timor-Leste because security in many areas along the border zones between Timor-Leste and Indonesia is not adequately managed by the border police. She gave the example of the border areas in the municipality of Bobonaro in particular in Maliana, Saburai, Tapo Memo and Humankhou, where illegal activity often takes place.
"Some people often go and come through these areas and no one watches them," said MP Josefa "this matter has to be looked into."
In response to the concerns, the Vice President of Commission A (for constitutional, justice, public administration, local authority and anti-corruption affairs) MP Arao Noe admitted that a draft drug law has been with Commission A but that an in-depth discussion of the draft is necessary.
MP Noe added though that even when the law is passed it may not be effectively implemented due to lack of other legislation and resources and adequate drug detection equipment.
"Our constitution does not apply the death sentence, only a maximum 30 year prison sentence. And we don't have any equipment, for instance we don't have trained dogs to sniff out drugs when they come in. This is why people often smuggle drugs into Timor," MP Noe said also.
The MP suggested that the national parliament, before approving the law, should consider making some changes in the constitution so the death penalty can be applied for drug smugglers in Timor. "A person who commits such a crime has to face the death sentence," said MP Noe.
He warned that according to statistics some 4 million Indonesians has been detected consuming drugs so this is a warning to Timor-Leste to strengthen its laws and surveillance to prevent drugs coming into the country and the Timorese using drugs.