We don’t want ‘wee’ legalised - Ghana Police

The Drug Law Enforcement Unit of the Ghana Police has vehemently denied what it described as a malicious and mischievous story that suggested that the police wanted the decriminalisation of cannabis, popularly referred to as 'Wee.'

The Head of the Unit, Deputy Superintended of Police (DSP), David Selom Hukportie who spoke exclusively to The Republic said he never called for the legalisation in an interview he had with TV3 as being carried out by some media houses.

“We also need to look at decriminalisation and here, I want to reiterate what Mr. Akrasi Sarpong said. Many people misunderstood him, but when you look at the situation, and you want law enforcement to tackle it without the criminal justice coming in to help it, it will be a problem,” the story which is widely published said.

But the DSP Selom Hukportie who expressed shock over the story said he doesn’t have such powers to called for the legalisation of the cannabis that has rendered many youths in the country mad indicating that the story sort to paint him black before well-meaning Ghanaians.

“The drug issue has moved away from being a problem to being a real security issue. We seem to neglect the spillover of this drug issue on our human capital, our social infrastructure and our productive national asset. We need to tackle it head-on,” he told The Republic.

He was of the view that “the locals in these communities should be looked at firstly from the point that they are involved in the production indirectly or encourage the production of the substance, but we should make sure we concentrate more on the big ones than chasing for the small”.

The Unit has between January and February this year recorded 32 cases with Ashanti Region leading the chart with 28 cases.

In the Regional Drug Auditing table available at the Unit, cannabis has been leading the chart for the past three years.

In 2014, 188 cases were recorded across the country. The figure increased to 298 in 2015 with Ashanti Region leading with 143 cases.

Most of the discussions in the public have all been based on moral justification and exaggeration of the effects of the marijuana with scientific evidence thrown out of the window.

He, therefore, calls on the law enforcement agencies to engage the traditional authorities in the fight to make it successful.