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{
    "id": 1056299,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/1056299/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 544,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Mukurweini, JP",
    "speaker_title": "Hon. Anthony Kiai",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 13439,
        "legal_name": "Anthony Githiaka Kiai",
        "slug": "anthony-githiaka-kiai"
    },
    "content": "In fact, I remember when I came across this Act when it was first introduced in 1994; it happened that the courts were under a lot of pressure to interpret this Act. There was a situation where even those small addicted bhang consumers were being taken in for 10 or 15 years. It had in fact prescribed a minimum sentence for such people. I find it very harsh where an addicted hoipolloi out there is fined Kshs10 million yet he cannot raise that. We must balance up between these young people being taken to jail and these young broke consumers being taken to jail. If we do not balance that, we might end in a situation whereby we will fill our prisons with people who cannot get out of addiction and cannot get out of jail because they do not have money to pay the heavy fines. So, we will be looking at that at the Third Stage. The issue of arrest without warrant is very good because drugs move at lightning speed out here. Before you get the warrant to arrest somebody who is transporting, consuming or manufacturing, the whole set up has changed. Therefore, you end up in a situation where you are not able to keep up with the pace of the drug sellers. So, this one is a plus on the part of this Bill. Those stiff penalties on users need to be tampered with a need to rehabilitate. Once you get hooked it starts slowly, with cigarettes, miraa, muguka and the like. What finally happens is that you get addicted. Once you consume those soft drugs, you want a harder drug to satisfy that addiction and need. Therefore, at the end, we have a situation where you start with the legal drugs and you end up consuming illegal drugs. We must strike a balance. As I finish, let us also look at prescriptive drugs. Some of these drugs that are consumed by young people, they are mostly over-the-counter drugs. Some of them like codeine which is a common cold cure are mixed with other things and they become hard drugs. We must also ensure that we tighten the bolts and the nuts for the medical profession to ensure these drugs that can be addictive are not sold. I rise to support."
}