‘Drugs are being sold by pupils in Sunyani West District’

Kofi Boateng, the Brong-Ahafo Regional Deputy Director of Narcotics Control Board (NCB) on Thursday disclosed that drugs are being sold in some basic schools classrooms in the Sunyani West District.

Mr Boateng made the disclosure at a day’s stakeholders’ meeting organised by the Sunyani West District Assembly to address Adolescent Reproductive Health Issues at Odumase in the Brong-Ahafo Region.

The meeting, attended by 90 participants, was funded by the United Kingdom Agency for International Development (UKAID).

He expressed worry about the situation and questioned why some pupils in the basic schools were selling drugs like India Hemp.

Mr Boateng noted pupils performances in the Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) for years now continued to drop and therefore attributed the menace to the involvement of some pupils and students into drugs selling and smoking as one of the factors.

He stated that drugs could damage both the brain and the reproductive system of the adolescent youth and cited that the 2014 statistics by the NCB indicated about 10,974 youth were in the rehabilitation centres in the country because of drugs.

Mr Boateng observed that drug abuse and addiction also caused sexual exposure which could lead to teenage pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases that have been major health issues affecting the adolescents in the country.

He therefore appealed to parents, guardians, teachers and all stakeholders to collaborate for the successful implementation of Ghana Adolescents Reproductive Health Project the government through the Ghana Health Service and the Ghana Education Service to save the nation’s adolescents and youth from those destructive habits and behaviour for them to become responsible adults.

Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Joseph Kwame Apoya, the Regional Coordinator of Domestic Violence and Victim Support Unit (DOVVSU) advised females, particularly the adolescents to desist from illegal and unsafe abortion and visit health facilities for expert advice and qualify services whenever they are pregnant.