NACOB embarks on educational programme

Accra, Nov.1, GNA - The Narcotic Control Board (NACOB) has embarked on an educational and drug awareness campaign in second cycle schools in the Upper West Region to sensitise students on the harmful effect of drug abuse and drug trafficking.

The campaign, would not only help to prevent students from engaging in drug-related activities but also encourage drug users and addicts to seek expert attention, a statement from NACOB said on Thursday. The Director for Demand Reduction, Mr. Francis Torkornoo, said available statistics from the Psychiatric Hospitals showed an increase in youth involvement in drugs.

He therefore stressed the need to educate students and also foster public support against prohibited activities relating to narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances.

Mrs. Juddy Mensah, Head of Education Department NACOB, took students through topics such as substance abuse, types of illicit drugs and their countries of origin, and method of trafficking. She said drug abuse was the deliberate use of natural and chemical substances for non-medical purposes to affect the body and its processes, the mind and the nervous system and also behaviour and feelings.

She named Cannabis Sativa (Indian hemp or marijuana), cocaine and heroin as illicit drugs and said they were mostly abused locally. Mrs Mensah, through her interaction with the students observed a potentially harmful practice, which was the mixer of Pito (locally brewed beverage) with Indian hemp to make it more potent. In a related development an officer from NACOB, Mr Stanley Ayo, has delivered a lecture on the topic: Narcotic Management, to the recruits of the Ghana Immigration Service at the training school at Assin Fosu. According to Mr Ayo, since most of the recruits would be assigned to the border patrols, there was the need to equip them in the fight against drug abuse and drug trafficking so as to ensure security and proper monitoring of the borders and entry points.

He emphasized the need for the recruits to go through proper evidence handling following the case of a suspected drug trafficker who was set free when the matter went to court.