Cape Town - Western Cape law enforcement agencies have made their first Drug Watch arrests.
Provincial traffic chief Kenny Africa said a 31-year-old man had been arrested at a roadblock at the Rawsonville weighbridge for the possession of three bags of dagga.
In Mitchells Plain, police with a search warrant arrested a well-known drug dealer at a house in Walter Battiss Street, New Woodlands.
Police spokesman Captain FC van Wyk said 300 units of heroin and 150 prepacked units of tik were confiscated. “Another bag of heroin, another of tik and nine packets of tik were also found,” he said. The estimated street value of the confiscated drugs amounted to R200 000. Van Wyk said the 31-year-old man would appear in court soon.
In other unrelated incidents on Tuesday, a 42-year-old man and a 36-year-old woman was arrested for the possession of tik.
Van Wyk said members of the Maitland Dog Unit pulled a vehicle over on the corner of Klipfontein Road and Duinefontein Road near Guguletu and found a plastic bag in it containing 500g of tik with an estimated street value of R350 000.
Two people would appear in the Athlone Magistrate’s Court soon.
* The Western Cape’s fourth Outpatient Alcohol and Drug Treatment site - in Khayelitsha - has been opened.
The centre offers free treatment and will help individuals and families affected by alcohol and other drugs.
The other centres are in Tafelsig, Delft South and Table View.
Earlier this week, the Cape Argus, Kfm and 567 CapeTalk and the province’s law enforcement authorities launched Drug Watch as part of a Lead SA initiative.
In a video played at the launch, Prof Johan Smith, head of the neo-natal unit at Tygerberg Hospital and who works with tik-addicted mothers and their babies, said tik abuse had “escalated enormously” over the past 10 years.
Eight percent of all pregnant women in the Western Cape used tik. About 8 000 babies that had been exposed to tik were born in the province annually, Smith said.
At the launch of the Khayelitsha centre on Tuesday, deputy mayor Ian Neilson said the babies would have to fight withdrawal symptoms and cognitive delays.
Lungiswa James, the city’s health mayoral committee member, said the new centre would be a “beacon of hope for those struggling to fight addiction”.
James said reducing the alcohol and drug addiction rate would lead to a reduction in crime.
Cape Argus