Drug Abuse on The Rise

There are countless reasons to conclude convincingly that our dear country Ghana is watching a time bomb ticking away waiting to explode and THE PUBLISHER is worried about the situation.

First on our list is the wanton and free for all drug abuse by our country’s youth puffing away their lives as though they were competing on a suicide mission.

A casual stroll along the boulevards of our town and cities or even our villages would reveal a nauseating and worrisome picture of young persons, sometimes as young as 12, engaged in all manner of drug abuse be it the smoking, sniffing, injecting, inhaling and quaffing in large quantities, supposed banned substances.

It makes one wonder whether as a country, we are really concerned about the canker of drug abuse.

Banned substances injurious to the health are ac common as currency notes in any city across the country.

One does not have to struggle at all when looking for marijuana or crack to buy.

Truth is at out door music events, people no longer hide to openly puff the so called banned weed. At football matches, there is a part of the spectator stand seemingly reserved for persons who want to publicly smoke weed even in the presence of uniformed men.

It is very common during football matches to find hundreds of spectators testing their might against the State by openly smoking weed and turning the policemen into secondary smokers.

Our fear is when people are allowed to break the law in the presence of the law enforcement agents without being punished, we are emboldening then to break more laws.

In almost every community across the country, in almost every street in Ghana, neighbours can tell where ganja is sold and which persons sells it. Yet we pretend it is a banned substance.

It is either we changed the laws to legalize the substance so government can regulate and rake in some good cash as pertains in some countries, or we get our law enforcement agents to act as men with balls and make sure the substance is not in circulation.

As it stands now, some policemen only take advantage of the supposed ban to search the cars of road users who appear suspicious and then when a roll is found on you, you are asked to ‘settle’ your case.

We have forgotten that drug abuse has its repercussions not only on the abusers but on society as a whole.

Our youth are turning into junkies and drug addicts while we all watch unconcerned.