A drug addict who is receiving treatment at a rehabilitation centre in Accra has averred that one major hindrance to Ghana’s war on illicit drug trade and abuse is law enforcement agents who conspire with drug lords.
According to him, some police officers provide drug lords in ghettos information about raids in their vicinity to aid their escape.
Those who get grabbed when the police embark on operations in ghettos bribe officers to gain their freedom.
This, he said, empowers drug addicts as they know they can still survive in their act by paying off officers to avoid going to jail, making it difficult to wage war on illicit drug trade and abuse in the country.
The addict who only gave his name as Kwame, told GhanaWeb in an interaction said “The unfortunate thing is that the police are very aware is of this…they even connive with the drug lords, notify them when raids are going to take place so they are able to escape. Even if they are caught, all they have to do is to just give some stipends – some few 1,000 Cedis and they are off the hook”.
“Drugs, so far as I’m concerned – marijuana, heroin, cocaine, those who peddle with it are given a minimum of 10 years imprisonment, those who use it, 5 years imprisonment,” he added.
Kwame, the son of a diplomat who was hooked on drugs for 35 years, is currently in rehab and says he’s made great improvement within the last four months.
As Friday, June 26, 2020 marks International Day against Drug Abuse and illicit trafficking under the theme, "Better Knowledge for Better Care," he advised Ghanaians to stay away from drugs as most youth indulge in the act based on peer influence.
In Ghana, children between the ages of 10 to 14 years smoke tobacco, a survey conducted by Vision for Alternative Development (VALD) revealed.
VALD noted that per “the Ghana 2017 Global Youth Tobacco Survey in Junior High Schools shows that 8.9% of boys and 8.2% of girls currently use any form of tobacco products. 7.0% of boys and 5.3% of girls currently smoke tobacco, 0.4% of boys and 1.7% of girls currently smoke shisha.”
Based on the report, they have called on the government to ban shisha, increase the taxes on tobacco.
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