In 2009, Frank Kasiita travelled to India to pursue a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration. But studies wasn’t his destination, or at least, it did not end that way, as Kasiita chose to deal with Indian drug lords, according to India Police.
Although the long arm of the law finally got hold of him, he refused to reveal the whereabouts of his passport which would have given a hint on his travels. India Police could do nothing more but process temporary documents to deport him back home.
Ugandans have always been used as vehicles for drug barons to transport narcotic drugs such as cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine (meth), from Asia through East Africa to Europe and America
Mr Edward Ochom, the police criminal investigations chief, says the trend has changed. “Uganda is no longer a transit point of narcotic drugs but a destination for them because of the weak laws,” he says.
What is worrying is that the traffickers are targeting students in secondary schools, though previously, they targeted students at higher institutions of higher learning in urban areas of Entebbe, Jinja and Kampala.
How do students get drugs?
Mr Yusuf Katamba, the police head of narcotic operations, said foreign contrabands in schools started to increase with the surge of foreign students flocking the country in recent years.
He says: “We first received cases of consumption of such drugs among foreign students who have the money to buy them. But local students from well-to-do families are now consuming it after picking the vice from foreign students.”

It is alleged that the drugs are brought in by Asian drug barons with the aid of their agents in West Africa. The West Africans do the distributing of the drugs to local dealers, who then sell to students.
The price of meth ranges from Shs1m per ounce and a student can spend around Shs5,000 a day on it. The students are addicted to meth that is cheaply made in illegal factories and widely sold in East Africa by drug traffickers from West Africa.
Dr David Basangwa, a senior consultant psychiatrist at Butabika Hospital, says there is a rapid increase of drug abuse cases and they receive many patients who are youth.
He says the problem will take a concerted effort to address because individuals or institutions alone cannot fight drug abuse effectively. Although the synthesised contraband use is on the increase among the elite who have the money to buy it, consumption of natural narcotics, such cannabis, have reached unmanageable levels among the students in rural areas.
Mr Siraje Lwanga, the head teacher of Namagabi Secondary School, says some of students learn drug use at home. “Some children come from homes where parents grow marijuana for sale so they come have a belief that growing and consuming marijuana is a way of life,” Mr Lwanga says.
Dr Basangwa says the most effective solution is passing the Narcotics Drug and Psychotropic Substances (control) Bill 1999, which has deterrent punishments for drug pushers and enables formation of policies and funding of drug control projects. The proposed law punishes drug pushers with life