People in Fiji are scared. Drug addiction and an exponential increase in young people testing positive for HIV have frightened the government, churches, and communities. It has become a national emergency.
There have been massive seizures of drugs in Fiji in the last two years. Almost five tons of methamphetamine were discovered and seized near Nadi in 2024. The police captured F$1 billion worth of cocaine being smuggled ashore on the northern coast of Viti Levu in January 2026. Fiji has become a transit hub for gangs shipping drugs to Australia and New Zealand because of its extensive and poorly policed coastline.
A growing portion of these shipments are being sold to young people in Fiji. Drug use is becoming visible in the schools. Children as young as 10 years old have been caught trafficking meth alongside marijuana and becoming users. A whole generation is in danger of being lost. There are drug gangs with connections to overseas syndicates. Some police and customs officials have also been implicated.
With increasing drug use, a surge of over 700% in three years (2023–2025) of people testing positive for HIV has occurred. This is related to the sharing of needles and blue-toothing among addicts. “Blue-toothing”, also known as “flashblooding” or “hot spotting”, is a dangerous technique where an addict withdraws blood from his own body in a syringe after taking meth and then injects this blood into another person’s body.
While sexual intercourse is still the main way of spreading HIV, needle sharing and blue-toothing are the causes of the recent massive increase in HIV infection in Fiji. To put the situation in context, there are 3,500 known cases of HIV in New Zealand but 9,000 known cases in Fiji, which has only about one-sixth of New Zealand’s population.
THE RESPONSE
The Fiji military is being deployed to support police in the escalating fight against drugs. Unfortunately, a young man, said to be a drug lord, was detained by the army and was found dead recently in the camp. His death was declared by the investigating police to have been murder. The Minister of Defence acknowledged concerns about human rights and accountability and emphasised that law enforcement must remain within the bounds of the law. He added that military involvement will depend on operational needs and legal authority. “The military role will be one of support, not substitution,” he said.
The Minister for Police, the Pacific Conference of Churches and other social leaders held a two-day National Pastoral Response to the drug crisis in February 2026. The minister said that policing alone could not solve the drug problem. There needs to be a balance between the “black glove” approach (arrests and sentencing) and the “white glove” approach (community awareness and strengthening of family and community care). The majority Methodist Church announced a three-year program of prayer and fasting as well as promotion of drug awareness among its members. The three-day conference of Catholic priests in Fiji this year focused on the drug challenge and what Catholic parishes and associations could do to remedy it.
TREATING DRUG ADDICTS
There are no public drug treatment centres in Fiji yet. One has been built in Suva but has not yet opened, and another is planned for the western side of the main island. As a result, many young addicts are being held in St Giles Mental Hospital in Suva. There are also medical services for HIV-infected prisoners within the Fiji Corrections Services. But the medical officers there are worried because some of the infected prisoners refuse to take the medicines they supply. Some prisoners say that the treatment is a conspiracy to harm them, and others say that they can be cured by faith in God alone.
I taught pastoral counselling and counselling supervision this year in a program run by Pasifika Communities University. I noticed that about one-third of the participants in the counselling program were corrections officers. The Fiji Corrections Services’ management and medical officers are hoping that these officers, with training in pastoral counselling, will be able to persuade the prisoners to take the HIV medicine.
The course supervisors working with the trainee counsellors noticed a big change in themselves as a result of their counselling experience. They said they found themselves listening to and understanding the traumas behind the offending. They recognised their common humanity, and this changed their outlook and behaviour towards the prisoners. Other officers want to do the course.
Fr Eamon Sheridan is a Columban who has been running a drug rehabilitation centre in Myanmar for many years. We hope that he will be able to come later this year and share his experience of drug rehabilitation with people who are trying to respond to this challenge in Fiji. We are at a tipping point and need all the help and advice we can get to counteract this silent plague.
Columban Fr Frank Hoare lives and works in Fiji.
Listen to "A silent plague"
Related links
- Read more from The Far East - September/October 2026
