Dope growers to be exiled

SAVUSAVU – Any villager in four northern provinces in Fiji found guilty in a court of law for cultivating or peddling marijuana will be exiled from their village for five years.

And those who are not registered as villagers will be removed from them permanently.

The tough stand taken by a committee of provincial chiefs follows the uprooting of 3500 marijuana plants from farms in the Cakaudrove district last week during a police operation.

Chairman Ratu Manoa Rakai confirmed tht they needed to take such drastic action because of the high amount of marijuana cultivation in the area. He said that traditional leaders in the four districts – Tunuloa, Natewa, Cakaudrove and Nakobo – have agreed to enforce the new village law saying they have previously been too lenient and had been taken advantage of by growers. - Fiji Times