‘A Turaga ni Koro today has the responsibility without the power’

The Vanua ko Lau is calling for stronger village-level authority to combat drugs, improved access to addiction treatment in the maritime islands and a review of penalties for drug traffickers.

In its submission to the Special Committee on the Constitution (Amendment) Bill 2026, the Vanua warned that remote island communities were exposed to drug trafficking despite having limited access to police, Customs officers and health services.

The statement linked concerns about illicit drugs with Fiji's HIV crisis, arguing that the country's young people were bearing the consequences.

“These are not two emergencies. They are one. Methamphetamine came; with it came the needle; and with the shared needle came the virus. It is our young who are carrying it.”

The submission described the maritime provinces as particularly vulnerable because of their location along sea routes into Fiji.

“Our islands lie on the sea roads between the open Pacific and the ports of this country, and the drugs come ashore on beaches where there is no police post, no customs officer and no clinic.”

The Vanua also expressed concern that young people were being recruited to move drugs inland for relatively small payments while those organising trafficking operations remained beyond the reach of Fiji's courts.

Restore village authority

The chiefs proposed reviving existing powers under the iTaukei Affairs Act that allow provincial councils to make by-laws for the health, welfare and governance of their communities.

They argued that these powers had fallen into disuse and that penalties had not been updated for generations.

“A Turaga ni Koro today has the responsibility without the power. We ask that this power be made to live again, so that a village may act against drugs in its own place and not wait upon Suva.”

The submission said stronger village authority would allow communities to respond to drug problems locally rather than depending entirely on intervention from the capital.

Treatment for maritime communities

The Vanua also called for addiction treatment services to reach Fiji's outer islands.

It warned that people in remote communities could face journeys of several days by boat to access treatment.

“For an outer island the nearest treatment may be several days by boat, and a right to health that cannot be reached is not a right.”

The chiefs asked Parliament to examine whether voluntary treatment alone was sufficient and to consider international models combining compulsory treatment, supervision and aftercare for people whose addiction posed serious risks to themselves or others.

Tougher penalties for traffickers

The submission distinguished between young people caught up in drug activity and those profiting from trafficking.

“For the young person, treatment. For the trafficker, we ask Parliament to consider whether the penalties now available are equal to what this country faces, and whether Fiji should follow those states - Singapore among them - which impose upon traffickers the severest penalties their law allows.”

The Vanua stressed that decisions about penalties belonged to Parliament and the courts.

It argued that Fiji's geographical position made deterrence an important part of its response to international drug trafficking.

“What it is unable to control, it must deter.”