Decriminalizing to Cover Up Incompetence

Praise be to Allah (swt) and Peace be upon the Prophet Muhammad (saw)

O you who are committed [to Allah]! Intoxicants, and games of chance, and idolatrous practices, and the divining of the future are but a loathsome evil of Satan’s doing: steer clear of such [abomination], then, so that you might become successful [in life]. [Al Maida, 5:90]

The outrageous statement by the head of the NADC, an institution funded by all of us taxpayers, calling for the decriminalization of all drugs, should have prompted Muslims — whom Allah (swt) describes as witnesses for humanity — to take a firm stand against this evil. A single khateeb would have exposed the role of this so-called addiction specialist, "who may have learned too much." Let us ask ourselves: whose interests does he serve?

This position does not surprise us in the least, since drugs, alcohol, gambling, women (through prostitution and pornography) and immorality (through homosexuality and other depravities) are part of a broader Zionist strategy to destroy non-Jews and destabilize society. The Epstein files confirmed this to us: immorality and corruption know no limits in their strategy to drag populations into perversion and ruin.

Let us set aside the impact of drug use on the family and society, on drug-related crimes, on domestic violence, or on workplace productivity; everyone knows — at least those who wish to see — that the impact on society is more than alarming, it is frightening.

And if they [the political hypocrites] are told, “Do not cause corruption on earth,” they answer, “We are but resolving issues!” [Al Baqarah, 2:11]

The atrocious crime in Roche Bois shocked people because of how incomprehensible it seemed. But crimes committed against loved ones under the influence of drugs, or from lack of them, no longer surprise us. What should have caught the attention of policymakers and the public is the impact of the illicit drug trade on the country's economy. We, as taxpayers, should be concerned about this. As economists have recently pointed out, we must take into account the indirect economic costs: the impact on productivity, the budgetary impact, and state spending on relevant institutions such as the police, the courts, and the prison system.

There is also the fact that significant public resources that could have been devoted to other priorities such as education, infrastructure, or social housing are instead mobilized to combat drug trafficking and use. These are also directly linked to certain forms of crime.

Moreover, the criminal economy of trafficking fuels corruption and inevitably seeks to influence the institutions that could stop it: police, customs, administration, politicians, and sometimes even the justice system. According to economists, drug trafficking does not just harm the structured, official economy, it ends up destroying entire countries. It progressively weakens the whole nation, as we have seen elsewhere.

At the societal level, drugs, it bears repeating, concern us all. Whether at the level of the family or society. Religious leaders, social workers, religious or social organizations, those responsible for law and order, policymakers, we are all concerned. Drugs affect every region, every social class. The inability of school principals, for example, to deal with the scale of drug use in colleges is symptomatic, while parents, for their part, feel helpless and desperate.

It is worth recalling that the report Enhancing Africa's Response to Transnational Organised Crime (ENACT) is unequivocal. Published in 2019 but since updated, it showed that the scale of synthetic drug use in Mauritius was alarming as of November 2020. According to this report, out of 53 countries, Mauritius ranked among the top three in terms of synthetic drug consumption. It is also worth reflecting on the involvement of organized crime in money laundering. Another question worth asking is what role illicit trafficking plays in financing political parties. Without pointing fingers at anyone, the apparent protection enjoyed by alleged drug barons should raise questions.

Let us return to the man who is paid with public funds to find a solution to the massive drug phenomenon: his sole declaration in favor of decriminalizing all drugs is an insult to the intelligence of the population and deserves to be sanctioned. If his leanings toward decriminalizing cannabis are already questionable, such a statement opens the floodgates to the free sale of synthetic and hard drugs. The question worth asking is: whose interests does he serve, especially when it is whispered that big capital is preparing to invest massively in cannabis cultivation as soon as it is decriminalized?

Furthermore, his statement claiming that a "sectarian lobby" opposes his miracle solutions deserves closer scrutiny. Which sectarian lobby is he referring to? Could it be the Muslim community, whose sacred texts consider drugs an invention of Shaitan and regard all drugs as haram (forbidden)?

By means of intoxicants and games of chance Satan seeks only to sow enmity and hatred among you, and to turn you away from the conscious remembrance of Allah and from salah. Will you not, then, desist?  [Al Maidah, 5:91]

It is important to recall the role of the Muslim as a witness for humanity.

"Thus We have made you a balanced Ummah, so that you may be witnesses for humanity, and that the Messenger (saw) be a witness for you." Surah Al-Baqarah (2), verse 143

And thus have We willed you to be a central ummah, so that [with your lifetime experiences and assumption of the responsibilities of all prophets] you become attestants to other peoples, and the Apostle becomes a witness over you.[…] [Al Baqarah, 2:143]

Moreover, Allah (swt) has granted us the status of the best Ummah:

You are indeed the best community that has ever been brought forth for humanity [for its well-being]: you require [and authorize] the doing of the common good and you disallow [and interdict] the common wrong, and you are committed to Allah.[…] [Ali ‘Imran, 3:110]

Allah (swt) also states:

The dual-loyalists, both men and women, are all of a kind: they sanction the munkar and abolish the ma‘ruf, and withhold their hands from giving and doing good].[…] [At Tawbah, 9:67]

In verse 71 of the same surah, Allah (swt) says:

And [as for] the committed muslims, both men and women, they are close to one another: they [all] stand for the ma‘ruf and op-pose the munkar, […]

From these verses, we can deduce that Allah has made the act of enjoining good and forbidding evil the distinguishing factor between believers and hypocrites. Whatever the naysayers may think, Islam is a complete way of life, not a sect.

The Qur'an, the Sunnah, and the consensus (ijma) within the Ummah all agree that enjoining good and forbidding evil is an obligation, a duty.

Allah (swt) further confirms this:

And let there be from among you a consolidated effort [of people] who call [other people] to prosperity, and to implement [and legitimize] that which is self-evidently right, and forbid [and delegitimize] what is self-evidently wrong: and it is they, they who shall be successful! [Ali ‘Imran, 3:104]

May Allah (swt) help and guide us.