Presidential Proclamation Declares Thursday as Nationwide Working Holiday in Observance of International Drug Day

Monrovia, Liberia: Liberia on Thursday, June 26, 2025, will join the global community through a proclamation issued by President Joseph Nyuma Boakai in celebration of International Drug Day as a nationwide working holiday.

During the observation, citizens, public institutions, and international partners are mandated to join forces with the Liberia Drug Enforcement Agency under the theme: “The Evidence Is Clear, Invest in Prevention—Break the Circle, Stop Organized Crime.”

The initiative, grounded in the 1999 statute that established the LDEA and consonant with United Nations General Assembly Resolution 42/112 of 1987, set 26 June annually for global mobilization against illicit narcotics trafficking.

By: Abraham Sylvester Panto

The presidential directive charges every ministry, agency, and county administration with crafting, funding, and executing awareness programs that illuminate the social, economic, and health costs of drug abuse.

The proclamation also acknowledged that Liberia has witnessed an escalation in synthetic-drug consumption that mirrors regional trends documented by the West Africa Epidemiology Network on Drug use.

By positioning the observance as a working holiday rather than a full cessation of business activity, the Executive seeks to balance productivity with civic duty, compelling private-sector employers to accommodate staff participation in community outreach while maintaining essential economic operations.

The proclamation underscores that the LDEA—created to prevent the importation, transit, and domestic distribution of controlled substances—now operates within an expanded mandate that includes intelligence-led interdiction, cross-border cooperation, and victim-centered rehabilitation initiatives, each of which will be showcased during tomorrow’s nationwide programs.

Government press aides confirmed that joint task forces comprising the LDEA, the Liberia National Police, and county-level health officers will deploy mobile information units across Monrovia’s densely populated boroughs and the port communities of Buchanan and Harper, distributing evidence-based literature on prevention strategies and offering on-site counseling referrals in concert with civil-society partners.

While the proclamation refrains from citing specific statistics, officials referenced the LDEA’s 2024 annual report, which attributed more than seventy percent of narcotics-related arrests to trans-shipment networks exploiting porous coastal borders, a metric the administration regards as justification for its aggressive call to “break the circle” of organized crime.

Thursday's theme—crafted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime—emphasizes prevention financing as the most cost-effective approach to reducing harm, an angle Liberia intends to highlight by unveiling a draft National Prevention Strategy that integrates school-curriculum reforms, faith-based interventions, and a proposed excise levy on precursor chemicals.

International partners, including the United States Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs and the European Union’s Serious and Organized Crime Threat Assessment unit, have signaled support through technical-assistance pledges, aligning with the proclamation’s exhortation for external engagement and reinforcing Liberia’s eligibility for multilateral funding streams aimed at capacity-building.

Health experts from the Ministry of Health’s Mental Health Unit will leverage the day to publicize fresh data on substance-use disorders, emphasizing the link between early childhood trauma and later dependency, thereby framing drug-policy discourse within a broader public-health paradigm rather than a purely criminal-justice lens.

As ministries finalize event logistics and county superintendents coordinate grassroots participation, tomorrow’s observance will test the government’s capacity to translate executive intent into measurable action, setting a benchmark against which future anti-narcotics commitments—both legislative and operational—will undoubtedly be judged by stakeholders at home and abroad.