Marijuana Testing At USP Alafua

Written by Charlina Tone
Friday, 22 February 2008
Prime Minister of Samoa checks out the new equipment at USP Alafua At long last the testing for illegal drugs and substances is finally taking place here in Samoa at the University of the South Pacific Alafua. Lemalu Taefu, Finance and Administration Manager of USP confirmed this to Newsline and stated that there has always been a need to test drugs and substances found in Samoa right here in Samoa. “For years, Samoa has been paying a lot of money to transport substances found here to New Zealand for testing and confirmation that they are actually marijuana/cannabis:” says Lemalu. Lemalu says that a forensic testing centre with state of the art facilities was opened at USP, and two Samoans that are remaining anonymous for safety reasons, were trained in New Zealand in the specialized field of forensic testing. Lemalu says that the long delay in this was caused by the unavailability of resources but now USP is able to conduct tests, with the help of the New Zealand and Australian governments. Lemalu adds that at the moment only testing for marijuana takes place but they will start testing for other illegal substances such as methamphetamine at a later date. “The importance of this achievement is that it is a cost saving venture and a development long overdue for Samoa:” says Lemalu. “The total cost involved with the previous testing process was tremendous; it was very expensive, especially when witnesses from overseas labs had to be brought over to testify. With this new development Samoa could be saving a lot:” Papalii Li’o Masepau, the Assistant Police Commissioner, agreed with this saying that “This process of transporting substances found locally for testing in New Zealand has always been time consuming and costly, now it is much more efficient:” Papalii said. Lemalu, however says that there has not been much testing happening, but there will be in the near future. The idea of setting up a testing centre arose in 2001 following a critical assessment of the time and expense of sending suspected cannabis to New Zealand for testing. This whole process was costing the government thousands of dollars every year. Comments (0) Subscribe to this comment's feed Write comment Name Email Title Comment

< Prev		Next >

[ Back ]

Polls

--ADVERTISEMENTS--

Google Satellite Map of Eveni Carruthers

--ADVERTISEMENTS--

"Where the natives buy and sell"

--ADVERTISEMENTS--

Latest Comments

Urgent Call For Cost Of Living Relief
Praise the Lord! Being to Samoa for the last 5mths really opened my eyes to reality over there, it b...

Urgent Call For Cost Of Living Relief
I really applauded the Tautua Party for their Caring Hearts and Concern about the price of food for ...

Deadly Catch For Fisherman
Cause or Root of the problem "ALCOHOL"

Being under the influence of alcohol "DANGEROUS". Caused ...

Joe Failua Launches Album at Home
Hi my name is Lepupa Seki a au musika i le fa'alogologo..... taumafai pea e aveave ai lau taleni mai...

Manu Samoa In Tough Pool For 2011 World Cup
whats with all the sad comments are you people real samoans? we have beat wales before so why not ag...

Social Network

Join the Newsline Team on Bebo

www.bebo.com/newslineS

Become part of the Newsline Bebo Network

Get News via your Email

Subscribe to Samoa Live News Headlines by Email

Get the Latest News on your Blackberry or PDA

Subscribe in a reader

Sounds from Samoa

Listen to broadcasts from LiveSamoa.com
Courtesy of Plantation Feet, SBC(540am) and
Radio Polynesia(99.9 FM)

http://www.samoalive.com/sliveradio.asx

Live on Weekdays from 8am to 9am

Have your Say

We want your Opinion

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
If you would like to submit a letter for possible
publication in the print edition of the Newsline,
please send an email to This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

We want your News

Submit News from your Area
If you would like to submit News for possible
publication in both the online and print version
of Newsline please feel free to email us
at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Become a News Blogger
Have a passion for writing? Interested in
writing articles for Newsline? Email us
at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .
We are looking for Bloggers from
around the world to contribute to our site.