By Ragan M. Conteh

MPs have agreed to pass the health emergency regulations on ending Kush, substance abuse but after the preparation of the regulations as against the next adjourned date.

The Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Mohamed Lamin Tarawally, on Thursday 18th April 2024 finally tabled in the well the Public Emergency regulations on enforcing the control of the substance abuse, kush.

The presentation of the regulations comes following the instructions of MPs that the House is furnished with the regulations which will need two thirds majority approval.

In the previous sitting, on Thursday 11th April 2024 lawmakers denied the approval of President Julius Maada Bio’s  proclamation of a Public  Health emergency on kush-control in the country.

The rejection for the approval of the emergency is due to the failure to submit the emergency regulations in the Well of Parliament.

Making his submissions in the chambers of Parliament, the Acting leader of the opposition party in Parliament, Hon Daniel Koroma said, the Attorney and Minister of Justice, Mohamed Lamin Tarawally should not bring out  regulations to support President Bio’s state of emergency.

He said until and unless the Minister through a due diligence works to formulate regulations as per law that clearly shows the road map for the emergency, otherwise parliament cannot approve such.

Hon. Koroma further said that, the law is very clear; adding that because the President had declared the public health emergency and that the minister should go and prepare the regulations which would  guide the emergency operations.

The MP said the local authorities are currently powerless to fight against kush; adding that the approval of the emergency at Parliamentary level will pave the path for local leaders to robustly fight to end kush and other drug abuse in the country.

“We don’t want people to misuse this state of emergency and on that note we should not approve the emergency without regulations,” he added.

The Leader of Government Business in Parliament, Hon Matthew Sahr Nyuma also insisted on getting ready regulations before the emergency are passed into law.

“We don’t want people to misuse public health emergency. We are worried about people using the emergency as yardstick to infringe on the right of citizens,” Hon Matthew Nyuma.

Hon. Matthew Sahr Nyuma said they had been seeing people using previous state of emergency in different ways, adding that with regulations , it will show how public health emergency on kush will be tackled without regulations being misused.

“When this issue of kush came up, MPs from both sides of the aisle agreed to fight the kush through the state of emergency, but also we should have  guiding tools which will help the fight to end it successfully just like Ebola and COVID-19,” he asserted.

The Acting Speaker of Parliament, Hon Sengepoh Thomas who presided over the sittings as Speaker  said what the Leader of government business and the opposition leader said about the presentation of state of emergency regulations, he said  this must be followed by the Attorney General and Minister of Justice.

He said Parliament is a house of procedures and that the emergency regulations are very much significant and the Minister should go back and prepare these regulations for action to be taken on the instruments.

The Speaker said once the instruments are passed into law, it allows the law enforcement agency and other local leaders including citizens to tackle the drug routes and arrest potential dangerous drug barons and smokers in line with provisions of the emergency.