Reported drug cases with the Fiji Police Force surged from 148 in 2009 to approximately 1400 in 2020, according to the recently released Counter Narcotics Strategy 2023 to 2028.
“While marijuana-related cases predominate, cases involving methamphetamine are also on the rise,” the Counter Narcotics Strategy noted.
Additionally, the strategy report highlighted that cocaine trafficking through the region is increasing. The Fiji Police Force is aware of new psychoactive substances in the community but lacks the testing capacity to identify these synthetic drugs precisely. Drugs primarily enter Fiji from South America and Asia, with transnational organized crime groups aiming to transport them to high-value markets in Australia and New Zealand.
Furthermore, drug cultivation and manufacturing occur domestically. Drug production in Fiji ranges from small clandestine labs utilizing products like rat bait and detergents to isolate precursors, to large-scale operations linked to transnational organized crime groups.
Young adults aged 18–35 years represent the majority of drug-related arrests in Fiji, constituting 65 percent of arrests from March 2022 to March 2023. By ethnicity, iTaukei individuals are disproportionately likely to be arrested for drug-related activities, making up 80 percent of drug arrests in the first half of 2020. Men are overwhelmingly represented in such arrests, accounting for 98 percent of cases in the same period.