The availability of drugs, right across the country is increasing daily. So you live in some quiet little rural town or suburb. No drugs here, you say. Wise up, the drugs have come! According to the United Nations, South Africa is one of the is on the top ten list with other drug countries. We have become a hub for drug trafficking.

Drug dealers are targeting our children, but many parents don't seem to believe it. Drug dealers see your children as a potential target market. They have the Pop stars and the popularity of drug use as their allies and this combined with their network will get their product to every corner of our country.

The shocking reality is that drug users are becoming increasingly younger. One study shows that 1 out of 2 teens admitted to having experimented with drugs. A shocking reality is that in some cities teenagers place their order via sms and the drugs are delivered to their bedroom windows.

True statistics on the availability of illicit drugs are hard to come by, and unreliable at best, owing to the nature of the phenomenon. All we have to go by are the estimates of professional workers in this field. But they are telling us horror stories, of more and more youngsters turning up hooked on anything from alcohol to dagga (marijuana), from ecstacy to heroin and "coke".

Another source of information that indicates the size of the problem, is the number of drug busts that are taking place. Not a week goes by that there isn't some news item on drugs being confiscated at airports or dockyards, or drug finds in houses, even in respectable suburbs. And some of these finds have been truly enormous, like four tons of Mandrax seized in one warehouse. Another was seven million Rand's worth of heroin. We are grateful that these drugs have been confiscated. But how much is still getting by, unnoticed? We can only guess, but according to the amount still in circulation on our streets, we are only touching the tip of the iceberg.

What we do know, however, is that the price of drugs on the street has dropped dramatically in recent years, by as much as 50% - 75%. The price of any commodity is self-regulating, according to the laws of supply and demand. This decrease in the price of drugs carries a message, which we are called upon to interpret. The demand for drugs is obviously growing, judging by the increased number of dependencies coming to our notice. An increase in demand should surely result in a price increase. But the price is dropping. Why? Because more and more drug dealers are entering the market, and the supply has outstripped the demand. The stuff is simply pouring in.

This carries a message, too, from the drug lords. They are telling us that they are targeting us - our kids, our country. They see our society as naive, gullible, unprepared, wealthy enough, apples ripe for the picking. Are we? Maybe we are. But we are about to change all that. And for this, we need, nay, we lay claim to the support and cooperation of every parent, every family in the entire country. For we have a message for the drug lords, too.

SOURCE: Drug Alert