Hefty life imprisonment, 50 years jail proposed for drug offenders in PNG

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Hefty life imprisonment, 50 years jail proposed for drug offenders in PNG

PORT MORESBY: Papua New Guinea (PNG) is proposing a new law that slaps life imprisonment or 50 years jail for drug offenders.

The details of the proposed new drug laws were reported by The National:

New drug penalties proposed

June 21, 2021The NationalMain Stories

By CHARLES MOI
DRUG offenders under a proposed new law face life imprisonment or 50 years in jail, says Attorney-General and Justice secretary Dr Eric Kwa.
Speaking to reporters in Port Moresby on Friday, Dr Kwa said the drafting of the “control substances bill” was approved by the Government two months ago and he hoped the bill would be tabled in Parliament before the end of the year.
Dr Kwa, who is also the chairman of the National Narcotics Control Board (NNCB), said the bill was comprehensive, modern and on par with drug laws in Australia, Samoa and the Cook Islands.
“We tried to put the death sentence for possessing drugs like Malaysia (and) Indonesia, but based on other considerations we decided to put life (imprisonment) to 50 years in the law,” he said.
“So the amount of prison (term) ranges from the volume and the toxicity of the drug.
“The new control substance bill will cover cocaine, ice (crystal methamphetamine), all matter of drugs including the use of certain medicines for mixing and developing illegal drugs.”
Dr Kwa said under the proposed drug law, offenders could be either prosecuted in the district or national court, depending on the severity of the offence.
Fines and jail terms would be based on the amount of drugs an offender had in his or her possession.
“It will go by grams and volumes,” Dr Kwa said.
“The toxicity of the drug will also be accounted for in terms of when we charge you.
“Hopefully, with this new law we will now stop the smuggling of cocaine into PNG.”
Dr Kwa said at the moment, there was no law concerning cocaine.
“You would have followed the court proceedings that we brought against the individuals involved in the cocaine bust and you would have noticed that we would not have been able to successfully prosecute those individuals in procession and dealing with cocaine because we don’t have a law on that,” he said.
“This the reason why the new control substance act will cover that area.”
Dr Kwa clarified that police would arrest, charge and prosecute offenders under the proposed law.
“So police will do prosecution but in close collaboration with the narcotics bureau in terms of evidence, technical knowledge,” he said.
“But we (NNCB) do the licensing of drugs.
“This does not collide with the Health Department’s licensing regime.
“We have checked all the different legal frameworks and we try to make sure that we create something that the narcotics board, when it gives the approval, only gives it for certain range of drugs.”
Dr Kwa said current laws relating to drugs, particular marijuana, were very weak.

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