The Story Is Not Only Bizarre, It Is Scandalous. Information From Ejisu Bisease in the Ashanti Region Indicates That the Chief of The Town, Nana Akwasi Acheampong, Has Incurred the Wrath of Teachers In the Town, Following a Severe Beating He Allegedly Inflicted on A Teacher, on What May Be a Trumped-Up Charge. An Accra daily newspaper reported yesterday that Mr. Francis Carter, a French teacher of the local Municipal Assembly Junior High School, took some friends to a drinking spot in town. While the teacher and his guests were taking it easy, a man appeared and claimed that he could smell the scent of marijuana, known in local parlance as 'wee'. [continues 376 words]
Political Parties Accused Of Collusion With Traffickers Hopes of future oil prosperity have given a lift to Ghana's presidential election race, but drug trafficking threatens to spoil the West African country's image with the stain of corruption. During the heated election contest, the results of which may be announced this weekend, lurid headlines in the partisan press accused both main rival parties of collusion in trafficking or of using drug dollars to win votes. Hard evidence was lacking, but the allegations are indicative of Ghana's failure to tackle an illicit trade experts fear is turning West Africa into a "Coke Coast" and of corruption that threatens to cloud a bright future. [continues 407 words]
Europe's Drugs Smuggled Through Ghana Hopes of future oil prosperity have given a lift to Ghana's presidential election race, but drug trafficking threatens to spoil the west African country's image with the stain of corruption. During the heated election contest, to be decided in a Dec. 28 run-off, lurid headlines in the partisan press accused both main rival parties of collusion in trafficking or of using drug dollars to win votes. Hard evidence was lacking, but the allegations are indicative of Ghana's failure to tackle an illicit trade experts fear is turning west Africa into a "Coke Coast" and of corruption that threatens to cloud a bright future. [continues 256 words]
The Ghana Police Service could pass for the most tongue-lashed public organization in the country. Anytime this foremost security agency falters as could any other human institution, most Ghanaians are quick to attack them especially on the airwaves. With the current reign of freedom of expression, many Ghanaians are able to contribute their views on national issues. When the subject is the Police, we can bet that there is usually no stopping of these contributors in their sometimes negative comments. [continues 597 words]
THE arrest of 157 suspected criminals and drug peddlers in parts of Accra recently marks a watershed in the effort of the security agencies to rid the society of miscreants. The alleged criminals were arrested at their hideouts in a dawn swoop in a joint police/military exercise at Alajo, Avenor, Kwame Nkrumah Circle, Abossey Okai, Darkuman, Cable and Wireless, Neoplan Station and La Wireless, all in Accra. According to Deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of Operations, Patrick Timbilla, the exercise had become necessary to rid the country of criminals and drug peddlers. [continues 291 words]
Government has intensified efforts to fight the drug menace which is giving the nation a bad image in the international world. The establishment of an office in Accra by America's Drug Enforcement Administration is expected to provide greater impetus for the fight. The office, which would be established between July and August will increase DEA's effort in fighting the drug menace in the West Coast Region, as more personnel are expected to be recruited to beef up the fight. [continues 690 words]
US State Department says corruption and lack of resources are seriously impeding Ghana's efforts to deal with the drug menace. It observed that the 2006 narcotics scandal involving allegations of official complicity in narcotics trafficking complicated "Ghana's efforts to combat the drug trade but served to focus public attention on the growing problem". "Ghana made limited progress in 2007 in addressing its legislative and enforcement deficiencies brought into the public eye by the 2006 narcotics scandals, and a long road lies ahead," it stated. [continues 467 words]
The head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has urged measures to address the "image problem" of global drug control efforts, which he says tend to focus more on the criminality of the problem and not enough on health-related issues. UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa told the 51st session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs - the central policy-making body within the UN system dealing with illicit drugs and the governing body for UNODC's drugs-related work - that it is time to move beyond just containing the problem and move forward in the fight against drug abuse. [continues 289 words]
Contrary to the assertion that Ghana was just a transit point for illicit drugs and not a production country, Dr Joseph Bediako Asare, a member of the International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) says the Board suspects there is small scale manufacture of cocaine and heroin in the country. He said there was overwhelming evidence of the availability of the chemicals used in producing illicit drugs like cocaine, heroin and amphetamine type stimulants in Ghana. These chemicals are used to refine the coca and opium, which are imported into the country. [continues 548 words]
The Director of the Accra Psychiatric Hospital, Dr Akwasi Osei, has called on Parliament and other stakeholders to pass more stringent laws to curb the drug menace in the country. According to him most of the laws on drugs in the country mainly deal with hard drugs such as cocaine, marijuana and heroine even though there are equally dangerous substances being used by people in the country. Dr Osei said this in an interview when he presented a paper on the topic; "Substance Abuse-Understanding it's Dangers" at the monthly Health Talk organized by the Ghana Health Service in Accra last Thursday. [continues 477 words]
It has gotten to the point that NDC presidential candidate, John Evans Atta Mills has to come on radio, from his temporary base in South Africa, to say "I'm not speaking from a cemetery. I'm talking to you from my hotel room. I'm well and fit. Atta Mills is not dead!" From discussions at bars afterwards, not even his own voice could kill the suspicion created by the minacious mind which pulled that practical joke on the NDC. [continues 2218 words]
Tension is mounting among police investigative officers at the Narcotics section of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), of the Police Headquarters in Accra, over the strange disappearance of part of the 67 cartons of cocaine, which was seized at the Prampram beach on May 21, 2006. Sources have told The Chronicle that some police officers at the Narcotics section are ganging up against one Mr. Adu Amankwah, who happens to be the head of the section, over his intentions to conduct a fresh test on the 67 cartons of cocaine, which have already been proven by the Ghana Standards Board (GSB), to ensure whether the substances are really cocaine. [continues 558 words]
Three policemen of the Ghana Police Service who connived and abetted with Asem Dakeh, a drug baron on the run, were yesterday sentenced to 25 years each with hard labour for their role in the missing 76 parcels of cocaine offloaded at the Kpone beach near Tema. The three, Sergeant David Nyarko, Lance Corporals Dwamena Yabson and Peter Bundorin were also sentenced to two years imprisonment each for corruption by a public official. The sentences run concurrently. They were charged in connection with the missing cocaine brought into the country on April 25, last year, by the vessel M.V. Benjamin. [continues 513 words]
Dan McDougall In Prampram, West Africa, Investigates How Cartels Get Drugs From Colombia To Europe By Recruiting Vulnerable Teenagers THE condoms are smeared in margarine or local vegetable oil, 'to help them slip down', says Kawko, holding out the white grains of pure cocaine in his scarred palm. Behind him, on the palm-tree fringed beach of Prampram village, dozens of colourfully painted longboats make land; the bulky wooden vessels heaved and roped out of the roaring West Atlantic by slender teenage boys. 'There are many other couriers here in Ghana; some have made a dozen journeys to London and Amsterdam. You can see the benefit it has brought to their families, even here in our village. Their mothers have stopped working; some have motorbikes and have bought fishing boats. Some have also died. A schoolfriend of mine swallowed over 50 condoms and died within an hour. He dipped the condoms in honey and they ruptured. He was foolish; the condoms were local, not imported.' Kawko gestures to where his youngest son is playing in the sea with a yellow plastic oil drum. 'I wouldn't want this life for him.' [continues 1697 words]
Almost anybody who takes a sustained, unprejudiced look at the current drugs laws eventually reaches the conclusion that they are hopelessly unfit for purpose. The Misuse of Drugs Act 1971 must be one of the least effective pieces of legislation ever enacted. At that time, there were perhaps 10,000 problematic drug users in the UK; now there are nearly 300,000. The Downing Street Strategy Unit concluded that "government interventions against the drugs business are a cost of business rather than a substantive threat to the industry's viability". [continues 618 words]
Re: Marijuana Can't Cure Asthma -- Counselor Dear Editor Mr. Baah Ntiri should do more research. My wife and I both live in urban Ottawa, one of the smoggiest cities in the world. We both have asthma, and we both use marijuana every single day. We used to have a lot of asthma attacks, but since quitting pharmaceuticals and starting up with a cannabis-only therapeutic regimen, we have had no asthma problems. Marijuana isn't just a good asthma medication, it is the best one. [continues 60 words]
The Eastern Regional Guidance and Counselor of the Ghana Education Service (GES), Mr Baah Ntiri, has said there was no clinical proof that marijuana can cure asthma. He said there was scientific evidence that when one took in marijuana, it could suppress some pains in the body for sometime but, it could also cause some damage to the body and advised the youth to avoid smoking the drug. Mr Ntiri was answering questions from students at a forum organized by the Eastern Regional Chapter of the United Nations Association of Ghana (UNA-GH) to commemorate World Drug Abuse and Trafficking Day at Koforidua on yesterday. [continues 159 words]
Global Rates Holding Steady The production, trafficking and consumption of most illegal drugs remained steady last year, and law enforcement agencies are becoming more successful in their fight against the scourge, according to a United Nations report released this week. Launching the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) 2007 World Drug Report, issued to mark the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking, UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa said the latest findings should dispel recent fears that the world was headed for an epidemic of drug abuse. [continues 515 words]
US Gov't Tags It As Major Transshipment Point Of Drugs THE NUMEROUS cocaine scandals that have bedeviled the country in recent times continue to carve a bad niche for Ghana's corporate image in the eyes of the international community. Latest among series of reports is that of the United States Department of State 2007 International Narcotic Control Strategy Report (INCSR) on Ghana, which puts Ghana in the spotlight as a major transshipment point of illegal drugs, particularly cocaine. The nation's premier Kotoka International Airport is captured as increasingly becoming a focus for traffickers. [continues 664 words]
Over the last couple of months, the good people of Ghana have been fed a daily breakfast of cocaine and other narcotics related issues, which began with the East Legon bust, through the MV Benjamin saga, to the final submission of the Georgina Wood committee report. To further dampen appetites, The Statesman revealed in its Monday October 2 issue, a study by the UN which indicated that Ghana now leads Africa's new status as a hub for drug-trafficking networks. [continues 648 words]
Inside Ghana
