PHIL FITZPATRICK
A few years ago I was sitting beside the Kikori River at Kaiam drinking a morning cup of tea when my companion, an old Simbu carpenter who I had known for some years, gently tapped me on the shoulder and pointed across the river.
A man was walking along the oil pipeline track towards the ferry. He had what appeared to be an M16 over his shoulder. When he got to the ferry he engaged the operator in conversation and then passed him a small package.
“Em nau,” the old Simbu carpenter said, “Bai ol ikam nau.”
And sure enough a few minutes later a line of men carrying packs came down the track. Ushering them along from behind was another man with an M16.
The men all went aboard the ferry and it fired up. A white Toyota Hilux had pulled up on our side of the river and was waiting for them.
The marijuana went to Kikori, the old Simbu explained, where it was split up. The good stuff, New Guinea Gold, was mostly shipped to Daru in banana boats and then across the Torres Strait to Australia.
The second grade stuff, Maryjane Green, went mostly to Port Moresby, a lot of it transported along the Hiritano Highway by betel nut wholesalers.
It didn’t surprise me that the buai sellers were complicit in the Maryjane trade. We all know about the enterprising highland mamas who invest their hard-earned savings in trips to Madang to buy betel nut.
What you don’t hear about is that these buyers also take marijuana to the coast to exchange for betel nut or to sell directly to dealers. The same thing happens in Lae. In Wewak it is flown down, often on Missionary Aviation Fellowship aeroplanes.
In most of the big towns the buai retailers, the street sellers, the so-called bastions of the informal economy, are also likely to sell Maryjane – you just have to know how to ask for it.
These days many of the smugglers who bring betel nut into Port Moresby are the same people who bring in marijuana. They have effectively taken over from the old buai wholesalers. They have, in effect, criminalised what was once a thriving cottage industry.
If you want hard drugs in Port Moresby you go to the Asians, they have the trade sewn up.
I’m not sure where the outlets are, maybe readers can help. Perhaps it’s the nightclubs and hotels. I do know there is a lively trade in hard drugs at the University of PNG, the Port Moresby General Hospital and a couple of the bigger hotels.
We are now hearing reports that Asians are moving in on the betel nut trade, something they weren’t interested in a couple of years ago.
What has happened is that the Papua New Guinean criminals who have broken into buai smuggling have longstanding links with Asian criminals and have opened up these new avenues for them.
Sooner or later Asian criminals will control both the betel nut and marijuana trade in Port Moresby. That the Asians are protected by the RPNGC will ensure they brook no competition.
It is unfortunate that the betel nut ban has opened up more opportunities for criminals. I imagine that, if the ban was lifted, the crims would still maintain their hold on all of the trade.
It is also a pity that what was once a relatively benign cottage industry, health issues aside, has been so corrupted, all because of poorly thought out government policy.