'The problem is the family': Fiji drug use crisis

• Fiji's battling with a hard drugs crisis and people are worried the situation is getting worse.
• Locals in the capital say the surge in drug use, especially among the youth, is due to a loss of "family values".
• The drug problem is also causing a rise in new HIV cases.

People in Fiji's capital, Suva, are laying the blame squarely on the loss of family values for the nation's meth crisis.

Prime Minister Sitiveni Rabuka has pleaded with the public not to even think about trying drugs last month after a video of a young naked women reportedly begging for a hit circled social media.

There have also been reports making headlines of users "blasting" or "bluetoothing" the highly addictive drug, locally known as 'ice'.

The practice of bluetoothing is when someone attempts to get high by withdrawing blood from a host - who has injected meth - and injecting it into a second person, a dangerous practice that has serious health consequences.

Navitalai Tamanitoakula, who was in Suva from Nausori on a Saturday morning, confirmed to RNZ Pacific what was an open secret: that the drug situation was getting worse.

"I can see that in the town, by looking at the people, especially the young people," he said, adding "when you look at their faces you can identify them, they're high," he said.

"You can always see them in the corner with a bottle of glue and breathing it. They ask for money."

He said before "youths" would be in the village but now they are loitering in the city.

Tamanitoakula blames the departure of "family values" for exacerbating this issue.

"The problem is the family, children should go back home, the parents should look after the children to discipline them.

"Now [children] can talk back to their parents and sometimes it even gets to the stage that they can swear at their parents."

'Definitely getting worse'

Pauline Doris, like Tamanitoakula, thinks parents have a bigger role to play.

"It's also the responsibility of a parent to look after their child to make sure they do not get involved in those things," she said.

"It's definitely getting worse but [the government] haven't done anything to solve the problem."

Doris has heard drugs are mostly affecting secondary school students but does not know anyone who is taking them.

"I've heard news and rumours, especially from some of my friends that some of their family members are caught and they have been reprimanded to the police station."

In January, the Fijian police made a major drug bust, seizing almost five tonnes of methamphetamine with a street value of over FJ$2 billion. Fourteen people have been charged in relations to the seizure.

Authorities have acknowledged that international drug cartels are using Fiji as a transit point for hard drugs destined for the lucrative Australia and New Zealand markets.

Since then, there have been reports of children as young as 10 years old being addicted, as police continue to conduct drug raids and make arrests, including high school children.

The county's substance abuse council this week revealed the number of new cases for HIV for the first half of the increased to over 500, surpassing the total cases (415) for 2023.

The council's acting head, Josua Naisele, told the public broadcaster "the highest cases of HIV seem to be coming from people who are injecting themselves with drugs."

Naisele has also warned that the [recent https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/525153/what-you-need-to-know-about-auckland-city-mission-food-parcel-meth-lolly-contamination "meth lollies"] find in New Zealand should ring alarm bells and he was "hoping and praying" it did not reach Fiji.

This time last year, the government rolled out a national plan to tackle a surge in the disease.

Home Affairs Minister Pio Tikoduadua told RNZ Pacific earlier this month "poverty" was the main driver of the drug issue.

He said the government was "really working" to tackle poverty in order "to address the drug crisis comprehensively".

There are reports that bad actors have also penetrated the Police Force.

A senior police officer in Lautoka city is under investigation after he allegedly found with illicit drugs last month.

Tikoduadua, who is overseeing a major 'police reset', told the Fiji Sun newspaper: "The Police have problems, I acknowledge that."

"There are people who have done things we are not proud of, we need to get rid of those people," he was quoted as saying.

Shital Devi has been hearing regular updates through social media that police have conducted raids and found drugs.

"Before it was less but now you hear it almost every day," she said.

Devi said did not know anyone personally who took drugs nor had she seen someone taking them, but she had seen bongs and needles left on the street.

"It's getting worse because drugs these days, it's not only with the adult users, it's also with the school kids so the situation is really getting bad," she said.

"If students are getting into it, it will harm their mental health, they will not end up anywhere, they will have no future.

"They will not know what responsibility is, they will just be addicted to drugs."

Fiji relies on tourism as its key economic driver, welcoming over 920,000 visitors last year.

Australia and New Zealand holiday-goers are its key source markets, making over 70 percent of total arrivals. It is considered the centre of economic activities in the Pacific Island region.

But the meth crisis had given Fiji a bad image, another Suva local, Mesake Tapua, told RNZ Pacific.

"Fiji should be the first one to stop the problem before it goes out to small island states."

He said he knew people who were using drugs.

"You can see it's given [users] all kinds of diseases, it's a new way of life for them.

"We're concerned about the young people because it destroys their mind when they should be in college or in school."

'Bluetoothing' is 'glamourised'

Drug-Free World Fiji founder Kalesi Volatabu said the problem had spread through urban and rural environments, in all divisions across the island.

Volatabu said every second or third person in Fiji would know of someone taking meth.

"If it's not within their own family, they will know of someone that actually has gone through that crisis," she said, adding "anything from bluetoothing or sharing of needles or cocaine, heroin, inhalants, [to] the sniffing of glue."

Volatabu said research done by her organisation in 2019 found drugs in Fiji were intended for the Fijian market and not only passing into bigger markets in Australia and New Zealand.

"The demand was here in this country and that was five years ago."

Volatabu said bluetoothing did not work.

"People have glamorised it, they've sensationalised it."

She said people thought they would get a "great high" from doing it or a "different high" but it was not the case and put their lives at risk.

"They're putting themselves literally on the line every time. They don't understand what they're doing."