Shania Shayal Prasad 
Drug-Free World Fiji is planning to carry out another national drug use survey with key relevant authorities amidst the emerging drug epidemic in the country.
Drug-Free World Fiji founder Kalesi Volatabu says their 2019-2022 survey, which included over 700 Fijians, indicated that over 60 percent of participants consumed drugs.
Volatabu says this emphasizes the need for national data to help in creating more effective strategies and frameworks for curbing this issue.
She says they plan to include the younger population in the survey.
“From basically gender, age group, religious belief, or where you are, academic level, employed or not employed, are you a user? How old were you when you used it? Why did you use it? We need to ask those why questions. Yes. You know, the method of usage. The other one, did it link to incarceration or, you know, being arrested?”
Volatabu stresses the need for a centralized system to collect all the data.
Meanwhile, a National Counter Narcotics Strategy 2023 to 2028 has been launched this year to fight against illicit narcotics.
