Common illegal drugs include marijuana and opiates. According to the 2011 United Nations Drug Report, the small population of

Mauritius Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label= Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It ...

has a prevalence of opiate consumption of 0.91%,while 3.9% of the population are regular cannabis consumers. Drug smugglers also use Mauritius as a stop over especially during their voyage to the east coast of Africa.

History

Consumption of illegal drugs on the island is not a recent phenomenon. Following the abolition of

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

in 1835,

, then a British colony, experienced an inflow of

indentured An indenture is a legal contract that reflects or covers a debt or purchase obligation. It specifically refers to two types of practices: in historical usage, an indentured servant status, and in modern usage, it is an instrument used for commercia ...

labourers from India who introduced

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: '' Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternative ...

to the island. During the same period,

immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not natives or where they do not possess citizenship in order to settle as permanent residents or naturalized citizens. Commuters, tourists, a ...

from China brought opium to the island. These drugs mainly served traditional purposes and were not of serious public concern. In the late 1970s, "brown sugar", a form of heroin, was introduced. Drug consumption deviated from its rather disciplined socio-cultural use and drug use proliferated. Mass drug proliferation was further aided by the development of extensive air and sea networks to

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

, South and Southeast

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an are ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

, combined with a free port. With drug smuggling rising, local social centres noted a huge rise in the number of child and teenage addicts.

Drug addiction Addiction is a neuropsychological disorder characterized by a persistent and intense urge to engage in certain behaviors, one of which is the usage of a drug, despite substantial harm and other negative consequences. Repetitive drug use oft ...

in Mauritius has led to the proliferation of prostitution, thefts and armed attack.

Treatment

Historically, the system convicted drug addicts rather than offering them treatment. However, in January 2006, the

methadone Methadone, sold under the brand names Dolophine and Methadose among others, is a synthetic opioid agonist used for chronic pain and also for opioid dependence. It is used to treat chronic pain, and it is also used to treat addiction to heroi ...

substitution therapy was implemented to help treat drug addicts. To emphasize its new strategy of treatment rather than conviction, the government made needle exchanges legal in November 2007, when it launched, in collaboration with the Collectif Urgence Toxida (CUT), a needle exchange programme. The main centres responsible for treating drug addiction are: * The National Centre for Rehabilitation of Drug Addicts * Dr. Idrice Goomany Treatment Centre * The Mauritius Sanathan Dharma Temples Federation * Centre d'Accueil de Terre Rouge. The carceral system also attempts to reform drug offenders through their Treatment and Rehabilitation Programme.

The Anti-Drug and Smuggling Unit

The drug situation in Mauritius led to the restructuring of the Anti-Drug and Smuggling Unit (ADSU). The following responsibilities were given to the ADSU: * Suppress the supply of illicit drugs * Arrest drug offenders and have them

prosecuted A prosecutor is a legal representative of the prosecution in states with either the common law adversarial system or the civil law inquisitorial system. The prosecution is the legal party responsible for presenting the case in a criminal trial ...

* Locate and destroy all cannabis plantations * Prevent and detect smuggling. Besides fighting drug proliferation directly through the detection and prevention of drug offences, the ADSU jointly conducts

sensitization Sensitization is a non-associative learning process in which repeated administration of a stimulus results in the progressive amplification of a response. Sensitization often is characterized by an enhancement of response to a whole class of sti ...

campaigns, targeting different layers of the population, with the National Agency for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Substance Abusers (NATReSA). In 2016, the Minister of Health criticized the National Agency for the Treatment And Rehabilitation of Substances Abuses for failing to prevent drug abuse.

References

External links

* * {{cite web , url=http://www.indexmundi.com/mauritius/illicit_drugs.html , work=Index Mundi , title=Mauritius Illicit Drugs , access-date=12 February 2012 Health in Mauritius