Calls by a Samoa Supreme Court Justice to deal with what he describes as a "pandemic" of alcohol abuse are being backed by the country's addiction services agencies.
They in turn lay much of the blame on cheap, easy to access rice vodkas and one service is calling for a ban on the locally brewed fire-water.
In a November judgement of an alcohol related case of manslaughter, Justice Vui Clarence Nelson said that while much is being done to prevent people dying from Covid-19 there isn't enough being done to prevent the many deaths caused by alcohol induced offending.
"It is undoubtedly a function of the courts of justice to draw attention to alarming trends of this nature and to point out that an alcohol pandemic has arrived, has been on our shores for a long time and has sadly become a part of the fabric of everyday life in Samoa."
During the sentencing of another violent alcohol related crime last month, a machete attack, Justice Vui told the defendant that "drunkenness and intoxication is never an excuse for breaking the law".
"The courts have warned the public time and time again on the dangers of consuming 'Rover Vodka' and other seemingly unregulated spirits being mass produced and sold cheaply in this country. Alcohol which is so strong that we believe it belongs in the category of "jet fuel"
Vui noted in his judgement some comfort he took from the recent Alcohol Control Act 2020 which aims to limit the availability of alcohol, reducing its consumption and its harmful effects.
He said it is important to confirm the roles different parts of society can play in achieving these goals.
However, he warned that many village councils were failing in this area.
Salvation Army in Samoa Photo: Supplied
Samoa's addiction services agencies
On the front-line for harm reduction are the Salvation Army and the NGO Teen Challenge Samoa whose programme manager Leatuolo Mabel Toilolo puts much of the blame on local largely unregulated brewers who market products like 'Rover Vodka'.
"This alcohol that has been manufactured here, it is accessible in the fact that it is cheap, way cheaper than our local brewed beer Vailima. And the content of alcohol within the bottle, it's high. It's about 33 percent alcohol," she said.
Some of the alcohol content in the local brews are as high as 40 percent by volume.
Leatuolo said the people they work with are aged 12 to 35 years old and the bulk of them come via court referrals while a smaller number are victims coming forward of their own accord.
She said the numbers across the board have more than doubled since the service began, going from 136 cases in 2017 to 285 last year.
Leatuolo is calling on the government to act.
"Close the factories down if possible. If not, whatever tariff or tax they get they should share it to the programmes like ours so that together we can all help to raise a better group of the younger generation."
The Salvation Army's addiction services team leader Sailivao Aukusotino Senio added that an all of society approach was needed.
"Addiction is everybody's business, is everybody's responsibility. And so we're looking at the village councils, the church ministers and everybody to help us with this."
Sailivao said they are working with government agencies and village councils to communicate the availability of help, to victims and abusers alike.
An alcohol and drug clinician for the Salvation Army, Natalie Senio, said they suspect the majority of victims of alcohol related harm are women but who are not coming forward for help.
"We're looking to increase the number of women that come through our service. We're going to do that through letting people know that we're here. We're trying to encourage people to self refer," she said.
"When we do see somebody struggling, they're going to know who to call and who to suggest that they can get help from."
She said alcohol harm is largely being caused by a pattern of abuse rather than of addiction.
The problem is around the binge pattern of consumption and that people are drinking to get drunk, said Senio.
"People don't sit down to have a glass of wine or a beer or two. When they're sitting down, they're sitting down to get intoxicated and sadly, locally produced cheap manufactured alcohol is a very easy way to have that happen."
RNZ Pacific has approached the government's newly established Liquor Board for comment on their strategic plan to implement the Alcohol Control Act, but it declined to comment in time for this report.
Likewise the police, which did not respond to our requests for comment.
But with an alcohol related double homicide involving guns at Afega and a separate one at Fagaloa already this year, government agencies are aware of the urgency.
