War on drugs cannot be an empty charade

Prosecutions for offences involving drugs leave a lot to be desired. Two street-boys found on Kirinyaga Road, Nairobi, rolling up bhang joints and carrying less than one kilo of weed face charges of trafficking. Couriers caught at airport security with several kilos of heroin or other ‘Class A’ narcotics, as clear a case of trafficking as you can get, end up in court charged with a lesser crime: Possession.

The boys are promptly slapped with a fine of more than a hundred times the value of the drugs (sentencing guidelines call for a fine of three-times the value). On the other hand, known traffickers whose attempts to cross international borders with massive consignments should attract mandatory life sentences get off with a ten-year term and the prospect of an early pardon.