Declaring War on Drugs A National Emergency -Musa Bility Joins the Fight; Proposes Resolution

MONROVIA – Putting aside their political, tribal, gender, religious and sectional differences, Liberians from all walks of life convened on August 7, 2025 to send a resounding message across the length and breadth of the country that they are tired with the menace of drug abuse that is eating away the fabric of society and devouring the souls of the vulnerable youth population. Not to be left out of the national battle cry against drug abuse, Nimba County District #7 Representative and Political Leader of the Citizens Movement for Change (CMC), Mr. Musa Hassan Bility, says he is prepared to push forward a five-count resolution at the House of Representative when they return to session, a resolution that will serve as the cornerstone for combating the proliferation of illicit drugs in the country.

Making his position known in his regular Letter from Saclepea column, under the title: “Declaring the War on Drugs a National Emergency”, Mr. Bility openly admitted that as a father, a brother, and a victim of the scourge, he and many others are losing the war on drugs.

Liberia is at war, Mr. Bility said, and the country’s enemy is not across the border, but right here among the people.

“It creeps quietly into our homes, poisons our children, destroys our families, and eats away at the future of our nation. Its name is drugs.

“This is not an abstract issue for me. My own family has been torn apart by this scourge. I have a child in prison because of drugs. I have another in a rehabilitation center, fighting every day to reclaim their life. And the rest of my children are victims too, robbed of the joy of seeing their brothers as they once did, forced to live with an absence that no words can explain. We no longer sit around the same table as a complete family. We no longer share the same laughter. We live with the heavy silence that drugs have left in our home.

“Five out of every ten families in Liberia are living this same nightmare. Sons, daughters, brothers, and sisters, trapped in addiction, recruited as peddlers, discarded when they can sell no more. And yet, those who import this poison walk free, untouched by the law, while our communities bear the full weight of the destruction,” Mr. Bility lamented unashamedly.

A Practical Resolution to Combat the Drug Menace

As a means of combating the drug scourge that is overpowering the young people of the country, Representative Bility vows to introduce a Resolution declaring the war on drugs a national emergency.

The Resolution, Bility said, will call for immediate and decisive action that will include the establishment of a Special National Anti-Drug Budget to fund targeted enforcement against major traffickers, strengthen the country’s borders, and build rehabilitation centers in every county.

 According to Representative Bility, his proposed resolution would also call for the establishment of a National Commission on Rehabilitation and Recovery, comprising professionals from Liberia and around the world with specialized skills in addiction treatment, counseling, social reintegration, and community healing, to administer these rehabilitation centers and ensure world-class standards of care.

 Other cogent action points of the proposed Bility Resolution include the establishment of a Specialized Drug Court to ensure swift and deterrent prosecutions; the setup of modern scanning and detection equipment at every port of entry, and the institutionalization of an annual national reporting to measure the social, economic, and security damage caused by drugs, and to hold leaders accountable for results.

“But more than policies and budgets, this is a fight for our children’s lives and our nation’s survival. It is a fight that must be free from politics, free from blame shifting, and free from the silence that has allowed this crisis to grow. The danger is clear and present. Every day we delay, more children are lost, more families are broken, and more communities are destroyed.

“I call on my colleagues in the Legislature to stand ready to pass this Resolution when we reconvene. I call on the Executive to begin acting now, break or no break, to tighten borders, intercept shipments, and arrest traffickers. I call on the Judiciary to deliver justice without fear or favor. And I call on you, the Liberian people, to unite in this fight, for it is your homes, your children, and your future that are at stake,” he said, noting that when history records this moment, let it say that Liberians did not turn away.

“Let it say that when the threat was greatest, we rose together, with courage, and we fought to save Liberia from decline. Let it say that we stood not only for policy, but for the families who cried quietly in their homes, for the mothers who prayed through sleepless nights, for the fathers who carried silent heartbreak, and for the children who still had a chance to be saved.

This is our war. It is my war. And it is a war we must win!” Bility said stoically.