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A village in Samoa has vowed to banish anyone found guilty of drug use or selling who does not pay their fines.
The village council of Satapuala has revised its village bylaws to enable it to hand down tougher penalties to anyone found guilty of drug possesion or peddling.
Anyone found guilty will be fined $10,000 tala and if they fail to pay the fine by 4pm the next day, they are to be banished from Satapuala.
The council will also report them to police.
Village mayor Tiumalu Me'i Elia told the Samoa Observer one family was slapped with a $10,000 tala fine last year after a police raid netted a large number of marijuana plants from a plantation.
A raid in 2020 netted 4000 marijuana plants from the village.
"Since then we've seen a lot of improvement within the village, not that I'm saying we're completely clean of drugs, but Satapuala is one of the villages known for marijuana given the raids but we've noticed some improvements," Tiumalu said.
