TIRANA, Feb. 5- Cannabis cultivation in Albania has been a resuming issue for years, regardless of the numerous police operations against the growth and trade of this drug. A worrying issue that has been pointed out by journalist Mimoza Picari for Voice of America, were the women convicted of drug possession.
Some of these women were exploited by the drug dealers to smuggle cannabis or other harder drugs across the border. The excuse was that men are suspected than women for this occasions. The other excuse was that the verdict given to women convicted of drug trade was easier than that given to men.
The other women were willfully cultivating and/or trading the drug. The reasons are simple: economic difficulties.
Some are single mothers that sought to provide a better future for their children. Others were family heads, or came from very poor families. Others had ill parents and found the drug trade as the only means to support the treatment.
“In an overwhelming scale these women are unemployed, lacking living conditions, with no housing, and most of all without any hope,” explained lawyer Genc Gjokutaj regarding this category of women that have dealt with this penal activities.
“A few years back my mom was very ill. I’d look for a job and wouldn’t find one. I was 15 years old. The hospital was asking for three thousand dollars. One day I started dealing cocaine and heroin. I would do it again for my mother if the time came back, because we were really poor,” shared Sonila Dinoshi, a 30 year-old drugs convict.
The women Mimoza Picari interviewed, including Sonila Dinoshi, are from the institution 325 for executing penal activities, which is at Ali Demi area in Tirana. This prison has 60 convicted women in total, nine of which suffering a freedom removal due to drug related crimes.
The police claim that this inclusion of women at cannabis cultivation and trade has taken alarming dimensions. Three percent of all imprisoned women in the past five years, respectively 240 women or young girls, were for drug possession or smuggling. Most of them are aged between 20 and 30.
Officials claim that programs are being planned so women from rural areas are given an opportunity to be involved in social projects and agricultural programs that seek to prevent the rise of this phenomenon of cannabis cultivation and trade by women. Deputy Interior Minister Rovena Voda who is director of counter-cultivation task force, claimed that the number of convicted women for these penal acts has fallen.
Voda said that the Ministry of Interior together with those of Agriculture and Social Welfare have been trying to create chances so these vulnerable women and girls, vulnerable meaning unemployed and family heads. The idea that it can cannabis can still be cultivated was the mainly tackled problematic.
Based on State Police statistics that issue is the most relevant because most of this imprisoned women were convicted for cannabis cultivation, respectively 140 women out of 240 in the past five years. Lawyer Gjokutaj explained that as cannabis invaded this country and turned into a farming culture, it was the women who mainly dealt with its growth, harvest, watering and cultivation.
“Women and girls are seen as a vulnerable category, easily exploitable, less attackable, not endangered, perhaps this has also brought more women to the production of the drug,” said Voda.
“The terrible economic conditions pushed me to carry out this penal act. I used to live with my mother, she has passed away now. I planted only seven roots, I wanted to have my mother medically checked out. I only did it for my mother,” said a 47 year old woman from the prison, who wished to remain anonymous.
Albania was subsumed by a massive cannabis cultivation centered at the village of Lazarat at the south of the country, but not only contained there. This drug market operated internationally and generated billions of euros annually, however the police and government undertook farm extermination operations since 2014.
The operation anti-cannabis started on 2014 with massive arrests, property seizures and other material confiscations. It has burned tons of cannabis throughout this years, both the market and trade were drastically reduced, and its cultivation has been limited. Cannabis is still an issue in Albania with its use especially among youth, and foreign authorities are still catching smugglers.
Yet, more than this plant, Albania is now facing a problem with harder drugs such as cocaine and heroin, being a passing route to the rest of Europe. According to a 2017 Drug Report from the European Monitoring Centre, Albania is the main gate of these drugs towards Europe. Numerous police operations and arrests are made to tackle this dangerous problem.
Apart from the reasons why these women gave way to be implicated with drug related crimes, they seem to have learned their mistakes and appear repented. At the Ali Demi women’s prison in Tirana, most of these nine women are left less than two years before they are faced with freedom again. They spend their days dreaming what they’ll do once their out.
“I had cocaine and I was going to pass the border to Greece. I have a little girl and I tried to make her a better life, but it didn’t turn out well,” shared Rudina Hoxha, a 27 year old woman from Prrenjas. “It has served as a good lesson for me, that I shouldn’t do such things. I will take my daughter and go to my brothers in Greece,” she added.
Another woman said she wanted to leave Albania as she saw no perspective here. Another said she wanted to create a family, even she admitted it was going to be hard after all those years in prison. And one said she had no idea what she was going to do with her freedom and how she’d built her life all over again.
“[..] I only want to walk, to walk by myself, to run out there. To go home, to my mom and dad. I want to stay only with those two, because I know that I have turned into a pain for them,” said 23 year old Redona Demolli, serving prison for smuggling drugs across the border.
