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Homeland Security Minister in Trinidad and Tobago, Roger Alexander. (Photo via CMC)
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander is blaming the use of crystal meth, a highly addictive and dangerous drugs for the increase in criminal activities by children in Trinidad and Tobago.
Crystal meth is a street name for the drug methamphetamine, a powerful stimulant that carries a high risk of physical dependence. Although methamphetamine has medical purposes, people use forms of it as a recreational drug.
It can also cause feelings of euphoria and high energy. Meth can also cause rapid weight loss, a higher libido, and intense feelings of alertness and concentration.
Alexander, a former senior police officer, told the Parliament on Monday night that this could be one of the reasons behind the violence at schools among school children and that the new government is intent on stamping out the practice.
“Mr. Speaker, I want to bring to the attention of all members of this House this evening and for those watching on television. The school children of today have gained information from the social network where they are putting meth into a balloon, filling the balloon with helium gas and putting it into their mouths.
“It gives you an instant attack and you see some of the behaviours you are seeing, we intend not only to treat with that, we are not about the symptoms, we want to treat with the causes, so we intend to tackle that at a different level, “ Alexander told legislators.
Earlier this month, Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar said she would be adopting a zero-tolerance approach to school violence, warning that students caught assaulting other students, teachers and principals will be expelled.
She also said that parents of these students and parents taking matters into their own hands, using threats or violence, would have to face the full brunt of the law.
She made the announcement following the latest reported school fight where a female student of a secondary school had been hospitalised, after being viciously attacked by three other students.
The recorded attack has been circulating on social media and Prime Minister Persad Bissessar said, “going forward, we will treat every occurrence of assault or battery as an expellable offence in schools and an arrestable offence to put before the courts.
“I want parents and students to listen very carefully, if your child assaults or batters another child, they will be expelled and will face the full brunt of the law. They will be arrested.
“All acts of school violence must now be referred to the police for criminal prosecutions. Parents need to take responsibility for their children’s behaviour. If they can’t train them to properly behave in school, then let them stay home and then we will have to look for spaces to properly nurture them and counsel them,” she said.
Alexander told Parliament that the crime problem in Trinidad and Tobago can be brought under control if the police patrol the streets, and that very soon officers will be deployed to carry out such a task.
“Those who sit down from time to time and don’t pay attention to what is happening in their surroundings, we intend to introduce in the not-too-distant future police officers on the nation’s streets.
“As a police officer back in the day, I told them if the police control the streets, we can control crime and at no time someone would go and rob someone and go next door and sit. They go back into a vehicle and they make good their escape.
‘So we need to strategically put police officers on the nation’s streets in particular areas so we can make particular interventions. We intend to follow through…to ensure safety and security for all of our citizens, no matter what it takes”.
Alexander said that the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) has an outstanding bill of TT$12 million (One TT dollar=US$0.16) to rental car companies, and the government will seek to settle the bill as vehicles are essential in the fight against crime.
