Work is in progress with the Attorney General’s Office to regulate the sale of industrial glue.

Minister for Women and Children Lynda Tabuya says a law is being drafted under which industrial glue will only be sold by licensed holders and will not be easily available in corner shops.

The steps are being taken as a huge number of children are caught sniffing glue.

The Minister says they’ve gathered that the majority of children who are addicted to glue live on the streets and their family does not know how to deal with them.

“The children themselves don’t know how to deal with addiction. So we’re coming up with ways to look at rehabilitation for these children so that they can be reintegrated back into their families and also into their schools because they’ve dropped out of school, and it’s very unfortunate.”

Lynda Tabuya

Tabuya adds the establishment of a new Children’s Department aims to further solve this issue.

“So we, as a ministry, when we have the Department for Children on August 1, these are some of the mandates that the department has. Yes, we’re working on that, especially with the Attorney General’s Department, which is going to draft the law to ensure that this happens to the Children’s Ministry.”

Sashi Kiran

Assistant Minister, Sashi Kiran says it is important to openly talk about the reasons behind children adopting just bad behaviors.

“One thing that we need to recognize is why the children are turning to this; yes, we have broken families, yes, we have a lot of social issues, and we also need to think through what we can do as a whole of society.”

The Ministry adds glue sniffing has become a common substance abuse as it is easily available on the shelves.

It adds the new step by the government will help tighten its sale.

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